A Vagabond In Death
by Transient Eclipse
Summary: It is in death that we are confronted with the reality that we were living and weren't dreaming of a wonderful existence filled with joy brightening the strife that follows everyone. It is grand to imagine beings ever gracious enough to gift more to those who have reached the land of the dead by gifting them another life - another chance to do things, but is it a curse or gift?
1. Arc 1- Early Life part 1

**AN: Hello and Welcome to A Vagabond In Death!**

**This is a story that I came up with randomly about a year and a half ago when I joked with myself about whether I should write a SI story or not, mind it has changed a lot since then and I can gladly inform you that it is barely one, the main character Takezou has the bear minimum of my own personality and is more just an OC if anything.**

**As it stands this chapter isn't actually the original and I'm in the midst of rewriting the first three or so chapters to make them much easier to read because before they were outright cringey and hard to read, with the rewrite obviously I'm looking to revamp it and make the stories first impression better.**

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**Chapter Title: A roll of the dice**  
**Arc 1 Part 1 **

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From what I understood about my situation, something like three years had passed since I found myself here. there wasn't anything wrong with that, and in fact I really like the family I have. My father Nobuyuki Rakurai and my Mother Kaede Rakurai were awesome, alongside them though there was my Aunt Ume, her husband Matsuda, Ume was Dad's older sister. Lastly there was My Uncle Toyohisa and his wife Rei, Toyo was my dad's younger brother.

Though that brought up the question of what Dad and I were doing right now, we were out on a walk through the village. He wanted to show me the sights and help me to understand its layout at an early age so that it would be easier for me to traverse it later down the line, but that wasn't the whole truth of the matter. Really we were out walking around so that he could see to his younger sister's grave, which was why I mentioned his other family first.

A long time before I was born to Nobuyuki and Kaede, Dad's sister Katsumi was on his team for a mission during the third Shinobi war where on the mission Dad lost his right arm as well as his sister. so he liked to come see her grave on this enormous epitaph that sat in a mass grave site or memorial site, not that it bothered me that he came here, it meant that I got to look around the village while we wondered about afterwards.

The thing about it all though was that I had started having these minor lapses or instances where long forgotten memories and such would surface and make my mind blank as it was rammed with all the new information from the memory, my parents seemed to notice it somewhat, but there hasn't been very many instances where its had a physical effect on me or how I acted after or during when it happens.

One such instance happened about recently when Dad had brought me along with him to his sisters grave, at the time it was appropriate for us to be there because it was actually her birthday and days older sister had come along with us. she looked after me while we walked around, the incident in question brought this to the attention of my mind-

_A dark haired boy, silver hair boy and a brown haired girl started running out of a cave that was collapsing before the silver boy was knocked unconscious by a falling rock and thrown out of the way by black hair, when the rocks and dust settled the dark haired boy was crushed with half of him under an enormous rock, red eye flaring- _the memory jump cut itself – _"THIS IS HELL!" A long dark-haired boy screamed into the sky as he cradled the dead form of the girl he loved, blood everywhere and a familiar silver haired boy unconscious nearby to them._

It was all really vague though and not much of it made sense whenever I looked back on that stuff, I just really hope it didn't cause me too many problems down the line when I grew up. Again.

Anyhow the result of said episode had me nearly fall out of my Aunt's arms onto the ground, though her reflexes were even faster than dads despite him being a Jounin from what I gathered about him. Which begged the question of why she was so fast, I hadn't and wouldn't be able to figure that out for a few years yet.

"D-Dad?" I said his name unsure of what he was up to as he lifted me up onto his shoulders so that I could see above the crowds we were now walking through after leaving the Memorial park.

I was frightened by it because he was really tall. like really tall. For reference I suppose it would help if I gave an actual gauge for how tall he was, he was a head and a half above most people and occasionally two heads taller. If I had to give it a number I'd guess somewhere in the range of six feet or more.

So gazing out on the crowds of villagers and the odd Shinobi walking through the streets I caught sight of a familiar head of red hair being carried by a dark skinned body, I'd know it anywhere. she always looked out of place in the street as well because most everyone in the village were fair skinned or somewhat tanned, we were probably the exception.

Dad beat me to it when I went to call out to her.

"Kaede!" his voice carried well enough that she heard it, despite being something like a hundred metres from us.

My mother turned towards us along with a street filled with several hundreds of people that heard his call to her, she seemed to blush at the sudden attention of people around her and I was feeling similarly to her because of all the eyes that were on Dad and I. he seemed to find the ordeal funny as we got within a few meters of Mum and she looked up to dad then me.

"How are you two doing then?" she asked as we walked down the street back the direction where our house was.

"We saw the faces on the mountain!" came my squeaky voice, it was a little annoying to have such a gaudy voice, but I suppose that's par for the course of being a child again.

"Really? well here I was thinking you'd gone to see the temple." Kaede was referring to one of the many shinto shrines in the village that I had taken some interest in recently, and by recently I mean last year around December for a festival.

"Yup, but we had to cut the trip short because Take nearly fell asleep on the way up." Dad cut in before I could give a reply to her, for their benefit I pouted earning a laugh from my parents.

Which reminded me of an issue I had been facing in having a hard time communicating, the language barrier didn't help much but rather that my head was filled with so much that sometimes it made it hard to think. or rather this body and mind were unused to the experience that was stuck in the back of my mind that it was hard to keep up with it.

It made me wonder sometimes where it was all being stored when I was learning new things-

My thoughts of troubling issues were thrown to the wayside when I was grabbed from off of dad's shoulders and swung around screaming with a sense of glee and terror as I was spun around. I heard laughing and caught the sight of blurry familiar features in a head of long black hair and amber eyes, her fair skin and bright smile made me giggle in a way that felt entirely like the child I was supposed to be. but… that was the thing, Ume was probably my favourite person I'd met outside my parents.

She seemed to love me like her own son and I was fine with that seeing as it was always fun when she was around.

**[The Plum, the Maple and the Happiness]**

A fair few months passed and my Aunt Ume and Uncle Toyohisa had both taken an interest in influencing my lifestyle and likes, my Uncle showed me a bunch of cool weapons and gave me a little lesson in chakra which put me in hospital.

I-

I was apparently born without chakra and so my Uncle shit bricks when I blacked out in front of him and collapsed, the last thing I had seen was a terrified look on Kaede's face as she heard my scream of pain and watched me hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

So when my eyes finally opened I found the ceiling above me to be very white, it smelt of antiseptic as well that there was an odd vague hint of lavender. Taking in a deep breath and releasing it I could feel something in my body, it was weird and not natural. something about it wasn't right, it felt like there was something running around under my skin or maybe like I could feel my blood flow? focusing in on it I found that I could hear better, like my sense of smell was intensified and lastly that my sight bleared in a way that let me catch things I shouldn't have been able to see. But it was because of that though that I saw a dark red head of hair that had small streaks silver traced about in the sea of crimson, along with her hair that I shared the colour with I could hear her soft rhythmic breathing.

Mum was asleep.

I wasn't sure if I should wake her up or not because Mum was always running around making sure all the housework was done, the meals were cooked- which I was interested in cooking- the clothes were washed and foremostly that I was educated. She was a busy body and I often catch her and still catch her falling asleep while trying to keep my child mind ever distracted. Kaede worked hard for our family and I loved her for it, so whenever those times came and she passed out from fatigue or exhaustion I just curled up next to her because it was nice and because as a kid you're always filled with more energy than the sun but ready to topple like Rome at any sign of pillows of comfortable situations.

Eventually though all the jittery energy and want for answers burst out of me and I put my hand on her shoulder causing her to stir from having fallen asleep in her elbows with her chest pressed up against the Hospital bed that I was on. it looked uncomfortable, even as she mumbled something and her eyes opened squinting a bit before her deep blue eyes flung open and her hand reached out before I was suddenly embraced by her with a sift worried sob beginning and ending in an instant. She was stressed, I could tell that much from the way she reacted down to how her arms felt wrapped around me, after all when you grow up with someone you get to know them like that. if I had to guess at why she was stressed and tense it would probably because of me going by the fact that she had probably been here on her own for a couple hours at the least.

"M-mum- you're crushing m-me!" I let out a squawk of words as I went limp helping her to realize it sooner, she had really tight hugs when she was worried and I still wasn't used to them. there was something about her that didn't indicate she would be as strong as she was, so it always caught me off guard.

"I was so worried about you!" She said hurriedly as she moved and sat up on the bed from me, it was about then I realized that I was probably in the children's ward of the hospital seeing as there were drawings of animals on the walls that were all colourful.

My attention span was something I looked forward to getting back.

"I don't know what happened..." I said with a wobbly voice, because, well… I was a little scared and who wouldn't be after blacking out with one of the most painful things in your life before waking up in a different place.

"Oh sweetheart!" I was dragged into another hug, whatever Mum was about to continue with was cut off when a Female Doctor stepped into the room.

From there It was explained to Kaede that I had gone into shock when I tried to use chakra because there wasn't any in my system, she told the doctor that I had nearly died in birth because I wasn't born with any chakra. The now named Dr. Nagisa, a woman with brown hair and brown eyes, was concerned with the news but said if everything had been fine so far then she'd let it off for now while they discussed the other things she had come here to do.

So I had been unconscious for a few days while my body and tenketsu adjusted to the influx of new energy and whatnot. I was given a physical exam as well as an orbital to make sure everything was fine, after that Dr. Nagisa talked to mum about giving me chakra exercises so that I could start getting used to the feeling of the new source of energy running through my body. She also said that I was a really strong kid for having gone four years without such a vital thing to a person, it had apparently made me stronger than your average kid because my body had adjusted to everything without it, whereas most children rely on chakra naturally even if they're civilian.

**[Shakti giveth and Shiva taketh away]**

Sometime several months down the road from when I first got my chakra activated and my parents had invested a fair amount of time into my chakra training and getting me more than a little bit acquainted with fairly advanced techniques taught to Genin or something similar.

Dad wanted to teach me something he called "Water Walking" and "Tree Walking", but mum had chewed his ear off for it, saying that it was far too advanced for a kid my age to do it.

Anyhow, right now I was being shown one of the jutsu that apparently I was suppose to learn at the Ninja Academy if I went there, my parents had given me the choice over whether to attend a normal civilian school or go to the ninja academy and because I wanted to learn all the cool abilities that came with it I chose being a Ninja.

Dad had explained it as a jutsu that let you imitate people and how they looked before doing some one handed seals and appearing as Mum in front of me.

"Woah..." it was really cool to see that sort of thing in person.

"Yup, but there's a problem bud, I can't show you how to do the hand seals because of the obvious reason-" he looked at his missing arm. "So if you would kindly get your mother then she can help us with this part of the exercise."

With that I excitedly ran back into the house from our backyard to find Kaede to help out, I didn't think she would know much of anything about Shinobi stuff because she seemed like she was just a civilian, but yet again here I was proven wrong when Dad asked me to get her to help. I found her in the kitchen making something for us to have for lunch and without telling her what I wanted I just said we needed her and that it was urgent. With that I dragged her through the house out to the yard where Dad stood with a smile on his face and Mum's because none too impressed with the situation.

"So what seems to be the problem Sensei?" she said looking at dad and he just waved his hand as though that explained it all to her. "What jutsu are you two trying out then?"

"The Transformation one!" I said loudly unable to keep my excitement under wraps.

With that my parents went to teach me and we spent most of the day out in the yard doing as much. Dad had really kicked up my training recently-

If I had to say though I think I was about five years old when my 'Genius' showed, but don't worry I zipped up my fly when that happened. What I mean is that I had always appeared fairly mature and smart to my parents and I'm sure they saw more of it than I had intended, but I had reached a point where it was getting annoying and old to hold myself back so much. It really was hard to hold myself back on a lot of things and its not like I knew much about other kids my age that were here in the village and what their progress rates were like, though there was something to be said about that. I never got introduced to other kids my age nor was I ever in a position to make friends with anyone before I joined the academy.

Because of all that though that now left me in an awkward position where my Aunt Ume caught me up in her antics and convinced me to join her in one of the Kenjutsu lessons to see what it was like with the supervision of Kaede of course.

A lot of my time over the next year was spent training with my parents and getting to watch my Aunt teach people, I think my Aunts care for me went the extra mile because of my name. My parents had named me Takezou, which is one of the different ways to read Musashi, of whom is a famous Samurai from the Sengoku Jidai. It was a cool name and maybe it subconsciously had an effect on my choices later down the line.

Though my Uncle had decided to show me some of his favourite books as an apology for thinking he nearly killed me with the Chakra training stuff and that was fair, he and I had similar tastes in literature. one of the books he got me was called "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi." It was pretty cool as far as the fictional stories I had seen.

**[There's an End to friend]**

Slowing sucking in a breath through my nose letting my diaphragm expand as I held my breath before calmly releasing it through my mouth.

I repeated this a few times for about ten minutes before I opened my eyes and stood up to stretch a little, or as well as I could with this body of mine, it wasn't all that easy to do what I wanted with such stumpy limbs.

Meditation was something I still had stuck in my head from another lifetime, it had helped a great deal to keep my chakra control very fine and made learning the jutsu dad showed me a lot easier. although I've had some problems with trying the Substitution and clone jutsu's, I'm not really sure why but I guess imagining someone else's appearance just comes easier to me.

It was a wonder really that I hadn't picked up much relating to Ninja'y stuff yet though, my aunt was too involved with stealing me away to show my more Samurai stuff.


	2. Arc 1- Early Life part 2

**AN: So this chapter is being released early as an excuse to talk about my chapter release schedule for "AVID", for the most part, the chapters are going to be released on a month by month bases, that being one chapter per month.**

**First few chapters if not the first ten or so are going to pass quite quickly in terms of timeline-wise because I'm unused to setting a minimum word limit as I have so it has lent a lot to me going through the passage of time much faster then expected so forgive a little for that if you could. err.. and if there are any questions that you have about Takezo or possibly anything else about the story so long as they aren't privy to spoiler territory I am fully willing to answer them if you review or even just PM me.**

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**Arc 1  
****Chapter Title: Black Steel Kazuko**

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Ya'know I was surprised at how little I was bullied in the academy in my first year, to be honest like I was basically prime target for it. My hair is the gaudy dark blood red with these licks of silvery-white, I have dark skin and I stand half a head above most of the class if not a little more, I'd have thought kids would have gone after me more but I guess not.

Anyway, the first time I actually interacted with the Avenger was about four months after we started at the academy when Iruka had been cycling people through different opponents in sparring, when it finally came around to Sasuke vs Me there was little cheer for myself that being the few friends or the closest thing I had to them and then Sasukes was a larger reception with all the girls cheering for him except Hinata, I noticed Naruto standing behind everyone, he was cheering quietly for me which was a nice thought as far as it extended to him wanting me to put Sasuke in his place because the two's rivalry had begun a month or so before. I honestly didn't expect much of myself in the fight because he had actual training and I had minimal it was an area I was poor at; my endurance was decent but actual strength was pretty poor if I ever won my matches it was always the height advantage that these kids didn't know how to abuse yet.

Making the unison sign we faced each other a fierce look on the adorable rounded face of the young Uchiha, Itachi was actually here today watching the matches at the request of Sasuke so that was probably his motivation. While my motivation just being that I didn't want to lose to this kid that would find a stick up his arse soon enough that he'll become asinine to deal with. Iruka called us to begin with a whistle.

Sasuke dashed at me immediately, causing my eyebrow to raise, I might call It a bit of a David and Goliath moment if not for the fact that the poor kid misjudged his reach and mine in which resulted in me just sort of throwing a right hook and sending him into the dirt with a now bruised face I actually kinda felt sorry he really wanted to show his brother how much better he'd gotten and here I was with every way to physically outclass him except actual strength which I still hold him to being stronger than me.

He charged me again and as I moved towards him to dodge to his left his foot caught mine and he tripped me, before jumping onto me and began punching my forearms that I was guarding myself with. A sigh escaped me as I grit my teeth from the kids punch cause it _fucking _hurt, there was a moment in his strikes where I realised the pattern he was dishing out and I ended up getting punched in the face as I grabbed him by the throat and threw him off me at which point Iruka whistled again and asked us to make the unison seal. We did and I gave him a grin.

"Alright, who wants to fight now that Takezou and Sasuke have finished?" a wave of hands shot up. In the background I noticed Itachi give a smile to his brother before leaving in a whirl of leaves.

Most of our interactions after that were through spars, to be honest, I didn't go out of my way to talk to him but that was mostly because he was surrounded by the hive mind of girls that wanted on his dick. I did end up talking to Shikamaru of all people along with Chouji though, Shikamaru had at the request of his large friend asked me to hang out with them a little after that initial fight with Sasuke. My first impression of the two was, _holy mother of fuck _Shikamaru was _smart_ that kid was going places without a doubt and with Chouji it was more, so he was just fun to talk to and he had a good eye for food it was always a blast when he asked me around to his house for dinner with my family. I'm not sure what kind of impression I made, hopefully it was what I intended which was, that I was languid towards most things and I enjoyed reading, that I was quiet for the most part which is why I think Shikamaru liked me if I think about it the kid enjoyed just lazing around watching clouds.

I tried not to interact with too many people because of the memory stuff, like Naruto that kid was a trove of them that would definitely make me faint from overload again which sucked the kid needed friends and I did want to introduce myself at the least. I did find a moment to talk to Hinata mostly I wanted to because the girl was really reserved and seemed like she didn't really have anyone to be friends with, She uh… got a little spooked when I approached her though I explained myself and got rid of the misunderstanding she seemed rather wary of me still which I wasn't too sure about until I got a memory about her being kidnapped by Cloud ninja which then I suddenly realised "oh right I look like I'm from cloud/lightning" but aside from that I didn't talk to too many people. Kiba was too loud for me, Shino was just sorta there and didn't talk so… yeah, Sakura was part of the gaggle that wanted Sasuke, Ino I might have called a bunch of uncouth rude words in English because she pushed me over for standing near Sasuke when I was walking over to talk to the kid, heh.

that was pretty great, to be honest, I normally don't like swearing be it here or in my original life but man, did it feel good to see her in stunned silence before spouting that I needed to stop speaking gibberish and get away from her precious. Err… onto the others wait, I think that was all the main characters from the show, otherwise, the rest of the class thought I was some jerk-ass red-headed kid from lightning that would attack you if you bad-mouthed my hair colour. So ya'know, not great.

**888888888**

There was a two week period where Sasuke didn't show during our second year and that's when I realised what had happened since I had no intention of seeking the fuckery afoot in the village I totally forgot what happened to the Uchiha, he was an absolute asshole though, it was funny to watch the girls get told to sod off by him when they crowded him after it. Any interaction after that was his unsavoury attitude getting on my nerves leading to me just sorta punching him when he treated me like dirt and us getting into fights which lead to Naruto talking to me which I didn't collapse at, so it was fine. He was cool to talk to if energetic to have as a friend and someone that was also fed up with the edgy one's antics.

Sasuke seemed to find his place in fighting with Naruto though falling away from me and focusing on the rowdy blonde, which I was more than happy with dealing with Sasuke took too much energy and drew me away from Shika and Chouji who were probably my closest friends.

Outside of school I was now quite accurate with shuriken and kunai, on top of that I finally got the Henge down it only took two years while I could use the substitution and Clone fine without too many problems, Dad had started to show me some Jutsu after he tested my chakra nature which seemed to be wind and with a slight affinity towards fire for whatever reason. Not that I was complaining about having two natures it was pretty cool, made it easier on Dad because he mainly knew fire jutsu anyway with a few earth jutsu, Mum no longer helped him teach me them so he was left to showing me a chart he drew up of the hand signs before doing the Jutsu himself showing me what the final product should be.

One afternoon when we finished up training he decided to take me out to a food stall, when we arrived it looked vaguely familiar but didn't click until we went past the banner into the cover of the stall and found Naruto sitting there slurping away on his bowl of food.

"Oh, hey Naruto!" I said with a smile getting an odd look from him as he looked to Dad and all his one-armed glory.

"This is my Dad, Dad this is Naruto he's one of my friends at school," I said getting introductions out of the way.

"it's nice to meet you Naruto, I don't meet too many of Take's friends so it's interesting to see who he's picked up" Dad held his hand out to Naruto to shake, the blonde stood a little ramrod shaking his hand going back to his food.

"So Naruto do you eat here often?" I asked fishing for info on the kid, he kept to himself about his position normally.

"I-I uh yeah! Teuchi and Ayame are awesome, so I come here all the time!" he announced with an energy that made the owner smile at and got a chuckle out of Dad after he ordered for us.

As time rocked on I noticed Naruto casting glances at Dad's arm "I bet you're wondering how Dad lost his arm aren't you Naruto?" I got him hook line and sinker when he nodded back furiously.

With a sigh Dad realised what I was doing and went with it "Well Naruto, When I was on a mission way back before you two were ever born during the Third Great Ninja War, I was fighting this Iwagakure Shinobi who used and explosive style Jutsu that She moulded through clay before throwing the creations at me and my team, that's when they came to life" he paused dramatically "She pushed us back and fought us off like we were nothing but we started to push her after a while of fighting when she seemed to be running out of Chakra but, alas it was a ruse to make us get closer where she threw super powerful versions of her jutsu in the form of spiders at us!" he stopped making motions with his hand "My teammates were caught in her trap and she made them explode in a glorious colourful explosion of rainbow colours stunning me as I was caught in the tail of it losing arm though battered as I was seeing my close friends gone I charged her in one final attempt and tackled her to the ground with my one arm slamming into her…" pausing from more dramatic effect for the already hooked Naruto.

"Finally after ten more minutes of us fighting she was knocked unconscious and she left me with only one arm which led me to getting the nickname 'The One-Armed Terror' not as cool as 'The Yellow Flash' or 'The Red Hot Bloody Habanero' like Lord Fourth and his wife but still." Naruto looked enthralled by the tale and Teuchi with his daughter both looked disturbed by the connotation of the story.

We were asked to leave.

**888888**

The blue sky with its fluffy white companions passed over us as we lay on the grass of a slope in the Nara forest, the eating sounds of Chouji, the sound of rhythmic breathing from a cloud watching Shikamaru and myself, I was trying to remember some stuff from before when a line came to my mind and I said it aloud in English.

"_In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control; even over his own will."_ I breathed a sigh after quoting it not quite placing where it was from.

"You... uh... okay there Takezou?" Shikamaru asked giving me a concerned look.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" he nodded, shesh whoops.

"What kind of language was that? Was it from Lightning or something? I know you're not from there but is it something your mother taught you?" Shikamaru asked in a flurry of questions.

"As far as I know it isn't, and it more so just me blurting out gibberish pay no mind to it" I said unconvincingly, _yeah he so wants to know more, fuck._

Though he let it go for now and went back to cloud watching, we sat like this for another hour before I had to head home, I bid them farewell. When I got home, Dad was in the living room sitting at the low table that had couches surrounding in on two sides, he was writing something out in a scroll with ink. I think it might have been a seal of some kind, I gave up on that the first time he tried to teach me because it confused the crap out of me and I didn't think it worth putting my time towards when I wanted to learn Kenjutsu which I had kinda started, my aunt Ume used Ninjato and a Katana's so she said she'd show me the ropes when I asked about it.

In fact speaking of Aunty Ume she wanted me to go to her house tomorrow for lessons, she had been teaching me basic kata's for shorter blades and wanted to move onto stuff more Katana like in length, she also seemed to think that it was 'impractical' to use training weaponry like Bokken but rather she'd give me a ninjato or a wakizashi to use just assuming I wouldn't cut myself and cause damage which rightfully so scared me shitless because I had a knack for clumsiness in my last life where I would often end up hurt from simple things or handling knives would mostly lead to lacerations unintentionally of course but still.

Well, I spent the rest of my day what I did most that being reading studying and writing in my English book thing, I ended up remembering some songs while I was working in it which lead to me humming them and singing a few of the lyrics.

"_Always look on the bright side of death!_" I whistled the tune "_Just before you draw your terminal breath!_" I whistled again "_Life's a piece of shit when you look at it! Life's a laugh and deaths a joke! It's true!_" this song seemed more to be more relevant and enjoyable now that this has happened to me. I continued to hum and whistle the rest of the song as I worked onward, trying to piece the memory fragments I had together. One thing was for sure I wanted absolutely nowhere near team 7 for my genin team I might actually take being with my 'bullies' over being anywhere near that train wreck.

I mean c'mon who in their right mind would actively choose to be in the middle of all that cluster fuck? S-rank missing-nin on their first C-rank, Orochimaru in the chuunin exams and then the invasion of Konoha while that one wasn't avoidable it doesn't change the fact that a group kids chased Gaara down. I don't plan on actively searching for situations like that if I can help it as far as I care I'm here to live out my Naruto fantasies and dreams of becoming a swordsman that can spit fire and things of that nature. Though I did want an actual introduction to Kakashi because he seemed like the kinda guy that might actively be an ass because he found it funny to watch others reactions, though he could just be an emotionally stunted guy who inadvertently is an asshole because he can't move on from past traumas and things in his life that have gone awry.

I finished up my work right as Mum called me for dinner, I left my work out and left my room for the living room where the food was set up on the table, Dad was sitting in wait for me and Mum was walking back into the room from the kitchen window with drinks. I sat down next to Mum facing Dad as we ate, after finishing and helping Mum clean up I sat back on one of the couches and relaxed contemplating what I wanted to look into for Jutsu to learn because I remember there being some really cool ones like 'Majestic Destroyer Flame' which was like a wall of flame that Madara used on the Shinobi during the fourth war. I knew that I held a fire chakra affinity from Dad testing me though I seemed to have some amount of affinity for wind too so that was a plus I could combo them and make massive attacks.

While I was thinking I noticed Mum come back into the room with a cake which confused me, because her birthday had passed and Dads wasn't for a while then she and Dad started singing a variation of Happy Birthday in Japanese. Oh… right it must be July 15th then, my birthday, so what I'm nine then? That sounds about right.

"Happy Birthday, Takezou!" they said in unison with large infectious smiles.

"Oh…" I let the surprise take me.

I hadn't actually remembered when my birthday was, I had long since stopped caring about them though for whatever reason since getting here I found myself liking them more maybe it was the family aspect, or how much closer I felt to Kaede and Nobuyuki then my original parents… no, that's not it... I'm about the same for how close we are. Maybe it's just the appreciation for it after dying, yeah probably that.

"Whoa! Thanks Mum! Dad!" I said cheerily with the brightest smile I could give them.

**8888888**

_Swish_

I dodged backwards several feet going into a fighting stance as I looked around to see where in the name of the gods someone just swung a Katana at me when I noticed my Aunt Ume standing there with the most shit-eating grin I've ever seen, holding her sword out and pointed towards me as she spoke.

"Good job kid! If you hadn't dodged that then I wouldn't allow you to move onto the next step in our training!" she stated with a laugh, her long black hair flowing about, and amber eyes crinkled into a smile.

"IF I _hadn't _dodged _that!_ Then I would be _dead!_" I yelled at the older woman who was now sheathing her Katana, black and red ribbon tethered hilt into its dark silver coloured sheath.

"Then it's a good thing you dodged then, isn't it? Your mother might actually skin me, and my little brother would have me by my throat for that, especially after how much trouble they had having a kid in the first place." She said her pale hand on her chin.

"Wait… what do you mean 'trouble having a kid in the first place'? was there complications during the pregnancy for me?" I asked confused.

"I guess it's fair they didn't tell you, well they tried for a kid two or three years before you but Katsuya died at birth, that was your older sisters name by the way, also that's not counting the fact that one of the Hokage's council members showed up asking about Kaede's allegiance to Konoha because she was formerly a citizen of Lightning or Cloud." Ume rested her right hand on the hilt of her sword as she ran her left hand through her dark hair.

"Another thing is that you almost died at birth as well, something about not being born with chakra or something like that." She waved her left hand as if dissipating the memory "Anyway, don't mention that to either of them their still very touchy about your birth and Katsuya's." she finished.

"Okay I understand, so what are we doing today aside from you nearly killing me to test my reactions?" I looked to her as we walked through her house into a large backyard.

Ume's yard was massive, to say the least, she had a dojo in the back of it because there was so much room, the yard itself was more like a courtyard for sparring outside. The was a large circular area marked out by rope nailed to the ground, inside the circle, the ground was gravely and dirt being a change from the rest of the grass of the area. The dojo made sense obviously because she was an instructor and her partner my other uncle Hatsuda did all the actual business stuff for her allowing more time for her to teach and train. It was pretty cool, to be honest, I got to meet a fair amount of her students and Hatsuda was really nice.

We headed into the dojo that had a sign above the door that read 'Black Steel Kazuko's Dojo' Kazuko was her and Hatsuda's last name if you hadn't guessed, the floors were clean and waxed, there were bokken and shinai on sword racks with two swords in sheaths on a display rack at the head of the room with a mannequin wearing parts of Samurai splint. One of the swords was her Katana she was known for using and the other was a Nodachi of the same steel but she didn't use it all that often saying "It's too impractical when I could just feed chakra into my Katana and get the same body splitting effect" though she said I could have it if I impressed her before graduation from her training or if I beat her in our duels.

She handed me a Katana that was on her hip and she took one that was sheathed and leaning against the wall where we walked in, walking to the centre of the room she went and opened a screen door that opened out to the yard allowing more sunlight in and for fresh air to run through the dojo. I stood opposite her as she came to a position and started giving me instructions on stances for the Katana and how to get used to its length comparably from the shorter blades we had been using like a Tanto, Ninjato and Wakizashi.

I breathed in deeply through my nose then calmly out my mouth, eyes closing as the breath filed out, my hands gripped the handle of the heavy sword with an unusual weight for myself after having used the lighter swords. I raised it above my head the tip of the blade pointed behind myself before stepping forward and swiftly slashing the sword out stopping it short of connecting with the waxed wooden floor, I repeated the swing counting them out trying for as many as I could do, I managed to reach one hundred and forty-three before my arms gave in and I unceremoniously dropped the sword.

From just outside the screen door that my Aunt opened about an hour earlier I heard a yell.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!? Those swords are expensive!" She yelled from the duelling circle where she currently had a few students in their Uwagi and hakama facing off against one another with bokken.

"Sorry!" I really don't want to get on her bad side, I can't swing a sword anymore today.

After ten or so minutes longer where I had decidedly collapsed to the floor on my back and put the Katana in its sheath, Aunty came in and her shadow looming over me for a moment, she didn't give me a moment to react before her foot stomped on my gut. I doubled over as she removed her foot with a satisfied smile and a bokken in hand.

"If you have the energy to react to pain then you've got enough for a round!" she said cheerily yanking me upward and forcing the training sword into my hands. "And you better pray upon Sussano-o that the blade of the Katana you dropped isn't chipped." Her grin got rather dark as her attention focused on me.

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**AN: and with that, the chapter is over, thank you for reading.**


	3. Arc 1- Early Life part 3

**AN: Hey, I'm glad to see how well this story is doing and how many people seem to like it, that means a lot and all.**

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**Arc 1  
****Chapter Title: Sketching Traitors.**

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"Takezou what are you reading?" a voice asked from my left in the next row of desks.

"Medical texts," I answered mechanically.

"What…?" I could near hear the confusion on Kiba's face as he watched me.

"I'm reading medical texts because my mother wanted to make sure I knew how best to patch people up and keep everyone on my team alive," I said looking to him and his white-furred friend in his jacket head poking out under his chin, ugh why did reading Kanji have to be so hard? That was my only problem with this crap.

"Wait, wait! Are you saying you can read those?! I can't make a lick of sense from any of those Kanji! How're reading any of that if you're dead last?!" he said earning the attention of the actual blonde dead last.

"Hm, what do you mean Kiba? Takezou averages a few places behind Ino and Sakura in the class placing." Chouji said from the row above mine.

"Huh? Whaddya mean? He failed all those assignments and tests! Surely he's worse than Naruto!" his voice full of confusion.

"Just because in the first few years that we were at the academy I had issues with figuring out the answers to stuff doesn't guarantee my place at the bottom after all I think I've done great in the last few years and with one more left I want nothing more than to be ready so I've made an effort to get better," I said having marked the page I was on and closed the book.

Kiba was about to reply when Iruka came in and told everyone to quiet down, he moved through the lesson with the autonomy that was all just rhythm at this point for everyone. I put the text away noticing that it caught Iruka's eye for a brief moment, we were working on chakra and what it was in class, I knew a good majority of what was being taught if not more than what Iruka was teaching leaving me to zone out or just pull out other work and do it while the lesson went on. I didn't do it this time however because I noticed Naruto napping and wanted to make sure he got this knowledge it was important after all and so I pulled out an eraser and threw it at the back of his head making him smack his face into the desk and groan as he shot up now alert and aware that everyone was looking at him. There were a few snickers from around me probably assuming I was trying to get him told off I imagine, but alas all I wanted was for the kid to do well in school.

Naruto got a raised eye from our Sensei when he groaned from being hit, Iruka went back to what he was doing on the chalkboard, Naruto looked back behind him to try see where the eraser had come from and I waved my hand getting his attention and tried to motion and mouth that he should pay attention because it was important what we were learning. Though I think he realised because he turned around and quickly started trying to write down what was on the board and what Sensei was saying.

Shikamaru… the pineapple-haired boy's name flickered across my thoughts as I began drawing a person in my book, I slowly sketched out the outline for the head, the boy hadn't followed me up on me speaking English in front of him in years so I think he's dropped it or just left it as the native language of Lightning, not exactly what I'd want but beggars can't be choosers after all, so long as he doesn't hound me over it. At least Mum and Dad accepted it at face value of being a language I possibly made up on my own because I felt like doing that because they still think I'm a genius though that novelty wore off and they never mentioned it to anyone as far as I can tell, which is nice because I don't want to be put in a situation to turn out like Kakashi or Itachi, as characters in a story I really liked them but as real people now it was a little frightening.

I started detailing the eyes and marking out stress lines on the face in my page, I moved onto the nose and mouth before filling out the hair of the person, before I knew it the class was about to go out to lunch break and I had finished my drawing. The person looked super familiar, but I couldn't place it, the bell rung, I decided just to leave my stuff out since we would be right back into work when the break was over and it's not like I needed to take my back out with me. When I got out into the yard I headed over a tree that had a swing on it, sitting under it in the shade I pulled out the bento Mum had shown me how to make for myself and I started on it when a certain blonde in orange came over and sat on the swing his stomach rumbling softly his face pink from embarrassment.

"You hungry?" I asked the boy holding some rice balls I had out to him.

"Are you sure Take?!" he looked so grateful it was actually kind of sad.

"Don't worry Kiddo you can have it I made more than enough" He took them graciously and munched away silently.

Suddenly I noticed a certain Avenger with a particularly dark scowl walking out of the academy building eyes sharp as they darted about the sea of children, I'm not sure who he could be looking for but I guess he'll be fine it didn't look like he was going to blow a gasket. My thoughts were interrupted by the blonde next to where I was now laying down with my eyes closed.

"Hey Take? Why do you always call people 'kiddo'? you're only a few months older than some of the people in the class…" Naruto's voice trailed off I can only assume something caught his attention.

"Force of habi-" I was cut off mid-sentence by a gloomy form stomping towards us.

"Heyya Bastard! Why the hell are you stomping your way over here I didn't do anything to you!" Naruto said, that's when I opened my eyes to see the resident Uchiha standing over me.

"How's it going Sasuke? We haven't actually had a chance to talk outside the occasional spar, so what's got your blood clotted up?" I spoke as I moved into a sitting position.

He thusly thrust a page of paper in my face "What the _Fuck! _Is _this!_" his voice seeping with malice I looked at what seemed to be my page I drew earlier.

"Erm… a drawing I did in class?" I don't know why he's so pissy.

"It's fucking _**Itachi,**_" he said hands shaking violently at his side.

"Ooh… yeah, it is… I was trying to figure out who they were and why they looked so familiar, but I couldn't place it" I said casually taking the paper from him and looking it over and realising a particular detail, the Itachi had his Mangekyou Sharingan flaring.

"_**Why**_ the _Hell_ do you have a drawing of _Him!?_" his voice still seeping with hate.

"Wait, wait whaddya mean? Who's Itachi? Why're so mad Sasuke it's just a drawing?!" Naruto said looking to the last Uchiha.

I answered for the dark-haired boy "Itachi is Sasuke's older brother Naruto, and you know how we haven't seen him in forever? That's him." I finished.

"Wait but, then why did you draw him?" he asked.

"I don't know I just sorta started and then I finished it, I didn't have a clue who I was drawing until Sasuke brought it out here on his warpath" I looked to the fuming Uchiha.

"So what're you going to do Sasuke? You going to punch me for reminding you of a horrific incident or are you going to destroy my drawing?" I asked.

A heavy exacerbated sigh escaped him before he spat a tiny blob of fire at the page in my and setting it ablaze as he stomped off, I dropped the page with a frown. Letting it burn in the dirt before a breeze took off with the ashen remains, the bell rang, and we headed back inside, I went back to drawing but did a landscape instead getting the occasion scowl glare from the Avenger himself which lead to his fan club not liking me more not that I cared. Naruto and I are loosely friends at this point I'd say he's still wary despite the fact I try to talk to him often though he still pulls pranks and makes a general nuisance of himself often getting detentions and such.

**88888888**

"Aunty Ume?" I asked looking to her as she was on the process of sharpening a Katana and cleaning it.

"What is it Take? Not something to brain intensive please, it's hard to talk and concentrate on this." She was kneeling over a large whetstone with a blade that didn't have its hilt, repetitively going through the fluid motions as she spoke.

I was sitting on the engawa veranda that was outside the screen door in the dojo with a sketchbook I had gotten a year or so ago drawing, I nodded hearing her comment about concentration.

"You know my drawings and sketches?" I got an affirming noise from her "Well apparently they're lifelike enough and I have an imagination that takes off on its own so much that I ended up drawing Sasuke's brother…" I trailed off looking glumly at the page where I had detailed familiar character as close to what I remembered as I could get.

"Sasuke? The Last Uchiha?" she asked slowing to a near stop for a moment.

"Yeah, I ended up drawing his brother unbeknownst to me, I've only seen him once or twice before he defected anyway but for some reason, I drew him right down to a detail I don't think I should have known about." I closed the book after filling the last bit of shading I was doing.

"What detail was that?" Ume looked up from the whetstone.

"His Sharingan, I ended up drawing them with a sorta shuriken or maybe swirly design." My eyes gazed upward into the slightly cloudy blue sky.

"You've never seen a Sharingan before though, so how could you…?" she entirely stopped what she was doing looking to me.

"I don't know, I just assumed it was one the more I looked at it." A sigh escaped me."Sasuke seemed to hate its accuracy so maybe the swirly design was what one looks like?"

"You've got it all wrong kid a Sharingan is between one and three black tomoe on a red-eye, maybe you made up the design subconsciously not that it's any better than out of the blue drawing the kid that murdered your classmates entire family despite only seeing him once." She frowned for a moment.

"You don't want me to take you to a Yamanaka therapist, do you?" I shook my head as she asked not even giving thought to the idea.

"If anything I kind of just wanted your thoughts on the matter really, I don't really want anyone to prod around my head if I can help it." I said having come inside the dojo and was sitting across from her.

"Well," she paused "I'd say for now just ignore the fact that it happened but if you have a few more instances where say something similar happens maybe you should take it up with you parents, there isn't much I can do about it but they might have an idea." She decidedly packed up the blade and whetstone along with the other equipment she pulled out and went to grab two bokken.

"Ready for a round? I'm not getting anywhere with that sword while you're here, so I might as well go a round with you." Ume threw one of the training swords to me and I caught it going into a stance.

With the same inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth I'd done so many times, letting my mind focus on my swordsman aunt, she took to raising the sword above her head to bring down in a single stroke while I took to raising the sword to my right with the tip pointed at her, she held her bokken firmly above her head ready to crush me with her strength, whilst I held myself from walking into her trap.

She never used that stance unless she was planning to change swing directions mid stroke, which she always got me with sadly, I was a fool no longer though, me now eleven give or take the years of my previous life so I didn't plan on falling into that trap unless it was to spring it and show her up with a move I had been practicing in my spare time to show her up. I hadn't named the technique because I had forgotten the name where I stole it from named it, so, eh.

I switched to having the bokken held out before me the tip aimed low towards her knees, we started circling each other when suddenly there was a metal clang from outside, my head snapped in the direction it came from and thusly I felt an excruciating pain on my ribs and shoulder before I was on the ground gasping for breath. my eyes closed for moment and when they opened the screen door that was open was now closed and there was a white light shining through the windows running along the top of the walls of the dojo.

There was a soft comfortable pillow under my head when I sat up and a blanket draped over me, my ribs and right shoulder hurt a _lot_, I pushed my hands up into the air stretching before clicking my neck and breathed out a heavy sigh trying to ignore the pain. _'I mean I'm already on the floor with a pillow, blanket and a futon under me I might as well sleep'_.

laying back down I looked to the ceiling my head resting on the cool pillow, as my breath became rhythmic my eyes closed, I fell asleep.

**88888888**

There was a soft huffed laugh before I felt more pain.

"AAAAAAGGHHH!" I screamed shooting right up into a sitting position clutching my stomach.

"Good you're up." A gruff voice sounded from my left where my uncle Hatsuda was standing bokken in hand.

"H-Hatsuda? Why?! What compelled you to do that!" I yelled still feeling the pain from him and the pain from yesterday.

"Your Aunt said you were bunking over after she knocked you out, and when we woke up this morning she said she wanted to sleep-in, so I came out here in her place." He put the wooden sword back on the rack and grabbed my hand pulling me to my feet.

I looked down at my clothes, I often just wore t-shirts or singlets with shorts but when I came for training I wore a Hakama and Uwagi or Gi under a kimono, the same kind Ume made her other students wear. The Uwagi was white and the Hakama was deep blue, I pulled the uwagi down, so it was sitting at my waist leaving my upper body out in the open, I tentatively rubbed the dark bruised spots on my already dark skin. A sigh escaped me for a moment '_Eleven years and I'm still not used to having gone from pale skin to dark like this, not that I'm complaining though it's a good change of pace, helps cement the in another world or reincarnation thing_' Hatsuda left quietly while I consulted my injuries.

I left the dojo with the shirt still down and walked into the house finally slipping the uwagi back over my arms and went to making breakfast for my Aunt, Uncle and myself. I took the food and set it at the table then walked through the house to their room and knocked on the door and said "Breakfast is ready and at the table when your up" then I went back and started eating my food. When Hatsuda and Ume finally came out I had finished my breakfast and was with my sketch book outside looking at the dojo from the veranda, I lightly scratched out an outline of a face as I began drawing. Ume's dark hair came down over me covering what I was doing.

"What're you drawing Takezou? And shouldn't you be at the academy?" She asked taking a step back as I closed the book on the drawing.

"I was going to try draw someone, anyway as for the academy they probably won't mind if I miss one day, Iruka knows I'm ahead on work and know the three basic Jutsu I'm only there at this point because of the law that says we can't graduate until we're 12 or 13." I said easily.

She made an affirming noise as a smile rose on her face "and I'm sure that your failing in math and struggle with reading isn't in need of furthering to a commendable state." I froze for a moment.

"I bet you're wondering 'how did you know that Aunty Ume?' and that's answered easily my dear lovely nephew Takezou, your mother and father were concerned that their little genius was good but was still stuck for basic things." Her smile grew "Things like taking extra time to read kanji as he was still having trouble matching it as well as always stumbling in math especially with explaining answers, while I agree with your sentiment about how you got there not mattering, getting them right is also an issue." I stood sighing.

"I get it, I'll go have a shower and head there." Her eyebrow rose for a moment.

"Y'know I don't think I ever felt like your Lightning genes were showing until right now, I mean shit you're nearly as tall as me, hm maybe something like a centimetre or so, though my brother is tall he's probably six foot one or two." she compared our heights with her hand.

"Huh, I never noticed that to be honest, guess someone in Mums family was hiding the tall gene from her then." Ume laughed shaking her head at the comment before putting her hand in front of me stopping me from leaving.

"While I agree with your mother and my brother I think you would do well with some more training today, you still want my Nodachi don't you? 'Cause the rate you're going you aren't going to get it until the Chuunin Exams." I looked at her with a face that asked, '_Are you telling me to ditch school?_' which she grinned at and turned me steering me in the direction of the dojo I had slept in for the hundredth time in my time training with my aunt.

After another day of her beating me into shape and me still not being able to catch up to her I went home, Mum was in the living room laying on a couch sleeping, I walked past her into the rest of the house to my room where I snagged underwear, a shirt and shorts heading into the bathroom to shower and change. I put my training stuff in the wash and went back to my room, my ribs and shoulder were better but still bruised and probably would stay that way for a few days longer, I laid on my bed for a while until there was a knock on my partially open door.

Dad opened the door coming into the room seeing me "Good you're here I wanted to talk with you about something." He sat down at the desk and I sat up on my bed.

"What is it Dad?" I asked trying to gleam anything from his face about what he was going to say.

"You probably don't know this unless my older sister told you, but you had an older sister Katsuya." He paused letting the supposedly new knowledge set in.

"Yeah Aunty told me a while ago but said not to mention it." I answered.

"Alright then I don't have to explain it then, that'll make this easier then. What I wanted to talk about today specifically was your mother is pregnant again after us trying for another kid." He paused again looking for my reaction "it's too early on to tell if you'll be getting a little brother or sister, but I'll need you to be helping out around the house more like cooking a few more nights a week and try not to stay away at Ume's training when the pregnancy is further along." He sat silent for a moment trying to figure if he'd forgotten anything.

"That's… whoa… I'm going to be an older brother then?!" I couldn't help but be excited, I was previously a younger and older brother, but I was unable to make a mark on my younger siblings.

"Hopefully my sister made you aware of our troubles with your birth as well?" I nodded "Well with this one we're just as worried and Mum will need us more than ever if it comes to that and she loses another child." I got what he meant I can't imagine the pain of losing two children like that let alone Katsuya, with me probably feeling like a miracle already for them.

**88888888**

Shikamaru waved me over when I got to the academy, he and Chouji were sitting at their desk when I walked in, the class was conversing as per usual. Sasuke was being hounded by the gaggle of girls trying to ride him, Naruto was challenging Kiba to something while Hinata watched them from across the room, Shino was seemingly being ignored leaving the other students to talking amongst themselves.

"You're actually here Takezou? Must be a miracle you've had so many days off over the last year I was beginning to think you had no immunities." Shika said.

I waved the notion off "Nah I just train in Kenjutsu under my Aunt and often she likes to steal me away from going to the academy to train me or she'll end our sessions by knocking me unconscious if I get distracted by sounds and other stuff while we duel." I said to my short friends.

'_Man. Ume was right I really am tall, I'm easily a head taller than everyone. Shit it's a little concerning, will I get taller? or is this the only growth spurt I'll have then I'll be left this tall for the rest of my days? Eh I'll worry about my increase in height later it's not like it matters_' blowing the thought away I sat down and waited with the other two for Iruka to show up and the class to get underway.

I ran my hand through my hair as I leaned back in the seat after finishing the work in front of me, we were going to be doing spars this afternoon so I was kinda excited to hopefully see all the Kenjutsu strength straining pay off as well as try some stuff. It sucked because we only did Taijutsu classes three times a week and I missed yesterdays, not that continuing in Kenjutsu doesn't outclass Taijutsu class but rather its nice to face off against different people and not get my assed kicked into next Wednesday by someone way above me. When we went out for lunch I think my excited mood was rather apparent because Chouji asked me about it.

"What's got you so excited Take? Are you doing something after the academy today?" he asked as we sat down.

"No nothing out of the ordinary, I guess I'm just super excited for Taijutsu this afternoon. It's one of the classes I enjoy the most because getting a chance to fight people that aren't my Aunt who normally makes an effort to knock me out and whatnot is a good change of pace." I said with a smile.

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**AN: See you in a month for the next chapter.**


	4. Arc 1- Early Life part 4

**_(EDITED: 3rd of May 2020)_** **AN**:** Thanks for the support to those of you who've followed, favourited and reviewed, that stuff means a lot. anyway, this chapter is another jump in the story.**

**Also Takezou is pretty tall mostly up to his mothers family and his fathers genes, so if I had to give it a number I'd say around the time he leaves the academy he's 5'5ft(168cm) if not ever so slightly taller. Where as from what I could find out looking around at official heights he's a head and shoulders taller than everyone from his academy class, cause Naruto is 4'7ft(145cm) when he leaves the academy from what I've read says. though this is mostly just for context and description- though I'm still unsure how tall he'll end up I've been thinking something like 6'3ft(192cm) just because that seems reasonably enough. I'm pretty sure his dad is that tall to from the info card I wrote up about all the characters back when I was planning the early chapters.**

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**Arc 1 end  
Chapter Title: Whats next then?**

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It was finally here, our final year at the academy. We were a week away from the final exam or test thingy, the class had obviously been told ahead of time, so they could prepare and get ready for it like make sure they could perform basic Jutsu, they didn't tell us which one they were testing for until the day. I had been spending the weekend before our final week getting my arse thrashed into the next life by Ume because she said, "There's no way you won't make Genin so I'm going to stop holding back, at least for the most part in our training so you're forced to get used to it, then hopefully you'll be able to beat me." She had said something similar six or so months ago, but it was more about her taking the training wheels off and she held back less and less until now where she still eviscerated me, but I was slowly catching up. Her 'Beat you at full force until you adapt' training was going well I'd say, considering it lent me to be able to spar confidently with Uncle Toyo even if he held back some.

Dad had taken up training me and helping me set up a proper regimen for it instead of just going off and training with whoever or even blowing off the academy for it, I got scolded a fair few times because of that, unless Ume was responsible then I got to watch her laugh at Mum and Dad as they yelled at her for trying to further my apprenticeship. Right now, though I was with Dad after a morning of jogging around the village, he said that there was this guy who he used to see going around yelling about youth who inspired the idea of us doing the jog, they sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it. Dad was sitting on a tree stump cigarette in hand while he waited for me to catch my breath and drink from my water bottle.

"You're making good time Take-chan" he breathed smoke out after he spoke.

"Thanks… you know Dad I know you're retired from being a Jonin, but smoking is gonna kill you, lung cancer and all that." I said as I began doing some stretches.

He rolled his eyes "That might be true but I'm looking to at least see sixty to sixty-five, I'll be fine-" he started to cough.

I gave him an arched eyebrow "I'm sure, what about Akatsuki though?" just mentioning my black and silvery haired sister seemed to catch him.

He gave a sigh and spat the cigarette onto the dirt crushing it under his sandal "Fine you're right, your mother would drag me from the Shinigami's grasp to kill me herself if smoking got me before our little red dawn turned five." He stood up stretching before scratching the back of his head.

"If you've got it in you to give me solid and logical life advice then you've got enough to do another lap or two." He started jogging from our spot on the Hokage monument.

I gave in and went off behind him seeing him occasionally look back at me to make sure I was still alive, which was fair we had just spent two or three hours jogging around the village as you might be able to imagine the village is very large, to say the least. Working our way through the outskirts we ended up going through the villages resident ghost town, the Uchiha Clan compound, it was dead and no that's not a pun its just the only way to describe how sad the air felt as we passed through it. I think I saw Dads face contort with sadness for a moment, which was something I'd never even considered, he had Uchiha friends, I can't believe I didn't think about that! Shit! No fucking wonder he was super sad that week it wasn't a coincidence it was because he lost his friends.

Gods, I feel like a bloody moron for not connecting the dots, we were passing through the Hashirama tree forest when I started truly feeling how sore my muscles were, I tripped and slammed into a tree. Dad stopped and came back for me, he looked at me for a moment then at his right arm or rather lack thereof and sighed before disappearing in a whirl of leaves. He came back about five minutes later with someone dressed in the generic Chuunin stuff, he had a bandana style Hitai-ate with a part of his hair covering the right side of his face.

"Thanks for helping Izumo," Dad said.

"It's nothing Sir, I'd take helping you over gate duty any day, Kotetsu and I get stuck with that damn near every shift," He said lifting me up onto his back.

"None of that 'Sir' stuff alright? I'm retired" after that they started the run back home.

"Sorry to be a bother," I said from the Chuunin's back.

"Don't sweat it, kid, your Dad is pretty well known and respected, so this doesn't bother me none." He gave me a smile.

Mum was playing with Akatsuki outside the front of the house when we showed up, Izumo promptly dropped me and started clicking his back, the poor guy, I was nearly as tall as him, so it mustn't have been a cakewalk. Probably still better than gate shifts though, Mum took Akatsuki's small hands and waved them to us as we walked into the yard, I made it a few feet before collapsing onto my face and rolling over. Izumo left and Dad dropped my water bottle on me, Akatsuki started clambering over me and using me as her jungle gym, I heard her giggles as I felt her small hands pulling on my singlet before she moved to my hair.

I didn't have the heart to stop her she was just so cute, she was about one year old now or maybe a little older I wasn't sure, her eyes were blue and what there was of her hair it was black with those same silvery streaks Mum gave me, her skin wasn't nearly as dark as mine and Mums, hers was kind of like a lightly tanned colour. After ten or so minutes of climbing on me Akatsuki decidedly curled up on me to sleep, I slowly moved allowing her into my lap when Mum shuffled over on her knees and hugged us tightly, I almost wish it lasted longer I was always a sucker for hugs they were easily my favourite thing in the last life and this one. Nothing could beat a good hug.

Whilst holding us in her embrace Mum whispered: "I love seeing you two like this its adorable" she pulled us in somewhat tighter for a moment before letting us go, she picked up Akatsuki and headed inside I followed suit.

**[Scene Break]**

I spent the rest of the day resting and looking after Akatsuki for Mum and Dad, I had since taken over most basic house duties for Mum like cleaning, doing dishes, cooking and doing the laundry which left her with a lot of time and she spent that with Dad or with me and Akatsuki. I had plans to do something this afternoon though, I wanted to go find Naruto because I remember him saying he had problems with a certain Jutsu and I wanted to try to help the kid out, I wasn't sure where he'd be but I'm sure he would either be at that ramen stand or off pulling pranks and making a nuisance of himself to the general public spouting about being the Hokage.

I left the house just after one o'clock and headed to Ichiraku's to look for my blonde-haired companion, the sky was light with a few fluffy clouds wandering it as I walked the roads of the village to the street the stand was on. I saw a few Ninja taking the high road also known as the roofs while I strolled along at an 'old lady's pace' as I was once told by an old lady, I liked to walk slowly because I enjoyed taking everything in and listening to the world as it passed me by, the streets weren't all that populated though I chalked that up to it being early afternoon on a Tuesday. Were we meant to be at the academy? Yes definitely, but I didn't care, we had the week off to practice the Jutsu, well that and Iruka knows about our newest family member causing me to stay home often to help out. I was still not great at math, but I was better at the speed I understood what a kanji meant, which was nice. Not taking several months to read a book instead of the week or two improved my mood.

I went in under the banner and Naruto was downing the broth of the ramen he had, he turned to me in the middle of slurping it down with bright eyes and gave me a wave.

"What can I do for you?" Teuchi asked as I came to stand behind Naruto.

"Er… I'm not here for food today I ate earlier, I'm here for Naruto." Said boy gave me a confused look.

"Whaddya need Takezou?" he asked wiping his mouth on his shirt.

"You know how you said you were having trouble with that Jutsu? I wanted to see if I could help 'cause I had trouble with the basic three as well and was hoping I can share my knowledge." I lifted the banner and motioned for him to follow me out.

I walked with him in tandem through the streets ignoring the people scowling at him, we went to Aunty Ume's house to train there, it was the only place I could think of going that wouldn't have us interrupted for not having a booked it or for being academy students. My Uncle was the one that answered the door when we showed up and he asked us the all-important question, one we had yet to be asked today.

"Aren't you kids meant to be at school?" he said looking at the both of us with an arched eyebrow.

"Heyya Uncle Matsuda! Could we use the yard and dojo to train?" I asked ignoring the question.

He clicked his tongue and shrugged going back inside "Sure just don't get too rowdy, we just managed to get Irisu to sleep after a night of her crying. Oh! And your aunt might actually skin you for waking her as well" he disappeared, and we walked through the house quietly out to the yard.

"Are you sure it's okay to be here? Your uncle didn't seem to be thrilled." Naruto said standing across from me while we were in the circle, he was fidgeting and looked fairly nervous.

"Eh," I shrugged "I'm sure it'll be fine just try not to yell 'cause like he said my aunt will skin us if we wake her and my niece," I said scratching my chin. "Anyway, what Jutsu do you need to work on? Show me by doing it that should be easier." I said waiting for him.

He did the clone Jutsu and two deformed and discoloured collapsed genjutsu clones were on the ground holding their throats as they seemingly choked to death, it was pretty violent to watch honestly. After a minute of them slowly choking out and Naruto standing there with his mouth agape appalled at his own efforts, I just watched with a disgusted fascination, kinda like a car crash. I let the awkward silence drag on for a few minutes, Naruto started squirming.

"_How the fuck did you manage that?!_" I said in English. "_Mother of fuck Naruto, how in the name of the gods did you manage to make them choke to death on __**air**__?!_" I continued in my native language.

"You're speaking gibberish again Takezou!" he said loudly.

Eyes wide I damn near jumped on him covering his mouth I made 'shush' gesture at him, with a fierce look. He shut up immediately "_You'll be quiet if I take my hand off you right?_" I whispered to him, I waited for him to nod before getting off the small blonde.

I sighed for a moment "Alright, so I have no idea how you managed to make your clone choke to death." I stated flatly. "You know how to channel chakra for the Jutsu don't you?" I asked him.

He stared blankly at me for a minute slightly confused before saying "What's Chakra?"

If it hadn't been for the fact that Ume would cut me in two if I woke her I might have yelled at that point, but instead I spent the next hour giving him a small crash course on Chakra and some small exercises.

I arrived home by myself half an hour after finishing up with Naruto, I walked straight through and past our living room into the kitchen and started on dinner, Mum was sleeping on one of the couches with Akatsuki in her crib and Dad reading. I whipped up dinner in about an hour and a half, I made rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables and fish, I brought it out to the table in the living room and served Mum and Dad theirs before my own and settled to eat. It was good, I'm glad I took up cooking when Mum taught me, she's a great cook, it's always fun to learn from her with stuff like that. She taught me how to stitch and repair tears in my clothing as well, there were a lot of small things she went out of her way to teach me, I couldn't list them off but there's just so many. It's so easy to say I love her, after all, she's done, I don't think she could possibly do anything that would stop me from loving her.

Afterwards, Dad took to doing the dishes on his own letting me relax in my room for the night, I went through my closet and draws when I got in my room to look through what I had and what I wanted to make my 'Ninja outfit'. I wanted something that left me with manoeuvrability, that was light and held itself well and covered as much as it could, so I could avoid immediate damage to my skin where possible, I'd probably try to stick to something similar with what I've been wearing the last few years.

After going through my stuff I decided on keeping it simple, mesh armour with a dark grey singlet or long-sleeved shirt over that, navy blue shozoku esc pants, black shin-high shinobi sandals and lastly a crimson haori with Aunty Ume's dojo emblem in black on the back that I may or may not have been given by my Aunt when she was drunk and didn't realise what it was, aside from all that I had a kunai pouch on my left thigh and a shuriken one on my right thigh. I'd probably buy some forearm guards and other armour at some point when I had money. I'd probably keep the haori to missions as well otherwise it'd be flailing around a lot.

I went to sleep not too long after that.

**[Scene Break]**

Today was the day we did our 'Genin Exam' I was looking forward to it and what it held, I arrived early a bit of my old self leftover in that, I was always anal about time because I feared not making it on time so showing up early was always preferable. I just sat around at my desk and started a reread of Jiraiya's first book, it was still easily one of my favourites so far that I had read since getting here, every time I read it made me want to meet him more just to talk with him really that's all I want. He sounds like an interesting guy despite the whole 'Icha icha' series of which I would never touch, smut just isn't my cup of tea.

After twenty-odd minutes of sitting around reading the rest of the class started filing in and taking their seats, everyone was sat with a one-person gap between them so if they tried to cheat for answers it would be obvious. When all was said and done, Iruka and Mizuki-Sensei had arrived with the written portion of the exam we began, it wasn't particularly hard, and they didn't need me to show how I got any of my maths answers so that was a plus. When I finished it there was still five minutes left of our allotted forty-five minutes for it, I looked around and noticed Naruto was struggling which sucked to see but, it was for the best for him to fail so he got fooled into learning the shadow clone jutsu, he wouldn't be him if he didn't have his staple jutsu.

"Alright, that's time!" Mizuki called.

"All of you bring your tests up here for marking and then we'll move onto the practical test," Iruka stated standing from their desk.

Everyone came down to the area in front of the desks and lined up in wait for their name to be called to perform the Jutsu.

"Alright, Shino do a Henge of the Hokage." Iruka started listing people off, all of the civilian kids that didn't seem to have much in the way of chakra flopped the test, except for Sakura she did it perfectly.

"Kiba make a clone" the dog wielding Inuzuka did "You pass."

"Shikamaru do a Henge of me or Mizuki Sensei" he lazily performed it "You pass"

"Takezou do a Henge of the Hokage" I channelled the chakra doing the jutsu "you pass" I walked back and sat at my desk with the Hitai-ate in hand.

"Naruto make a clone please" Naruto's clone didn't choke to death immediately so it was a start, then it suddenly choked out "You Fail Naruto."

"WHAT!?" the blonde yelled making everyone wince, I tuned it out as Mizuki tried to sway Iruka.

Not too long after that Iruka spoke to us all "Now for those of you that passed you need to be here tomorrow to find out who you're Jonin Sensei is, don't be late." He left the class as everyone dashed out in exciting spells of happiness holding their Hitai-ate.

I went straight home to show Mum and Dad then off to Aunty Ume's to challenge her for the Nodachi.

**[Scene Break]**

She was fully kitted out in her grey uwagi, black hakama and white haori with Samurai esc bracers, greaves and breastplate, she sat with her infamous 'Kuroi Sabato' in its sheath in front of where she was kneeling with her eyes closed, she had her raven black hair tied up in a high ponytail with her Hitai-ate over her forehead. It was really intimidating because I was only wearing my 'Ninja outfit' but had a hoodie instead of the haori and had no weapon to speak of, didn't help that all her other students were standing around us in the dueling circle just outside the dojo, Matsuda was watching the house with Irisu in hand keeping my niece from having an episode.

"Don't go getting cold feet now nephew" My Aunt said opening her eyes to see me.

"I-I didn't expect y-you to have all of your students watch, I just thought it would be me, you and Uncle watching from the side-lines." I stuttered out.

"Now where would the honour of my dojo be if, in the graduation ceremony we didn't make a spectacle of it, after all, it's a joyous occasion, my dear Take-chan." She stood up the pieces of armour clinking.

She picked up her sword and clipped it onto her left hip next her wakizashi, she motioned for one of the students that was behind her to come forth, he came over with a Katana in its sheath. She took it from him, my fellow pupil bowed to her as he did so, she turned and tossed the Katana to me, she pulled the wakizashi out holding it in front of her while I strapped the sheath to my left hip and readied the sword with the tip pointed at her.

"You know the rules and so do I, let's make this interesting kiddo, I'll be using this little knife to make things fair" she waved the wakizashi around for a moment.

All I could think while one of the students came out to signal the match was '_We're no strangers to Love! You know the rules! and so do I!_' Damn she got me good, even here I get rickrolled, this is fucked. A hand-cut through the air and within milliseconds Ume was forcing me to retreat.

She was… insane… she moved like the armour and clothing had no effect on her whatsoever and that's not counting the fact that she was pregnant only four or five months ago, it was like trying to fend off a rhino or elephant, the pressure was nuts. Our swords clashed in the briefest of exchanges, she met my flurry of blows with simple extremely fast heavy swings that I couldn't match. We traded so many strikes that the small beautiful spark that flared as the swords connected came ever time I blinked, it was hard to keep this up and I think it was starting to ware on Ume as well because she backed off for a moment before taking a moment to breath, I did so as well relishing in the moment before we were at it again moving all over the arena in flashes of speed and showers of sparks.

"Shit!" we both said in unison as our swords connected with our skin and blood sprayed out on the ground, we backed away again, I put my hand over where the fabric of my hoodie I had worn instead of the Haori, it was torn open showing a cut that had crimson coming out of it. Ume rubbed her arm for a moment moving it around before turning back to me.

"If that little bit of blood and pain is too much for you we can stop!" she said with a toothy grin.

I rolled my eyes "You and I both know it's until there's an obvious winner, we're unable to go on or someone goes unconscious." I breathed a heavily as she came for me.

'_This is it! This is my moment to get her with it!_' I thought as within the space of seconds I moved unlike I ever had done in front of her and in a stunning beat of silence everyone watched as her wakizashi was flung upward into the sky out of her hands spinning at an amazing speed as it started falling back to the earth and landed with the blade in the dirt. Ume stared at me with wide amber eyes while everyone else cheered for me and clapped. Ume just continued to stand there with her mouth open, confused, stunned and just generally lost for words.

I sheathed the sword in my hand and breathed a sigh '_Gods I'm so fucking glad that worked she could have crushed me if that didn't work._' I walked over to my Aunt and she just looked at me for a moment recovering from what happened then suddenly she pulled me into the tightest hug I'd ever experienced, it was bone-crushingly strong as she wore and amazed proud smile and laughed.

"That was _amazing_ Takezou! Holy shit! That's just so… fucking awesome!" she basically yelled in my ear setting me back down from the hug. "I'm so proud to have you as my student! I'll gladly hand you my Nodachi if that's what your sword skills are like! What was that anyway? It can't possibly be yours unless you've been working on it for years? Does it have a name yet!" Ume said happily questioning me.

"I- er… It's my own move…" I said faltering "I was thinking of naming it 'Mikage' or 'Betana' but I wasn't sure, as for how long I've been learning to do it after coming up with it, it's probably been five years, it was something I thought of super early on but this is the first time I've field-tested it." I said unsurely.

"Damn, I need you to teach me that its an amazing move." She said before she suddenly disappeared into the dojo and came out with the Nodachi and handed it to me.

"It brings me great pleasure to say here that Takezou Rakurai has graduated from my dojo, _For now at least,_ and had one of my swords passed onto him" she patted me on the shoulder with a big smile as I unsheathed the big sword slightly to see its black metal before closing it.

I was now legally an adult by ninja law and owned a 'big fuck off sword', so did that mean I could drink? because things didn't seem like they were going to get much better, more like it was about to all go downhill seeing as who I was pretty sure I may end up teamed with.

* * *

**AN: Kuroi Sabato's translation is 'Black Sabbath' btw  
**


	5. Arc 2- Genin Days Part 1

**AN: Yo how's it going?**

* * *

**Arc 2 part 1  
****Chapter title: Introductions are key**

* * *

When I got to class Naruto was there with a huge smile on his face and a Hitai-ate on, people immediately went to him to ask why he was hereafter failing the test, me knowing why he was there just left it at that and let him be. Iruka arrived later without Mizuki which got some questions from some of the class, he waited for the rowdy class to settle and become quiet before he got right to the point of the class and started naming off teams.

"Team 7 Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka and Sakura Haruno, your Jonin Sensei is Kakashi Hatake" Naruto cheered, Sakura looked downcast while Kiba and Akamaru seemed content.

"Team 8 Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka, your Jonin Sensei is Kurenai Yuuhi" none of them seemed particularly bothered though I thought I heard Ino mumble something.

"Team 9 Shino Aburame, Ito Sumon and Keiko Mousu, your Jonin Sensei is Kurisu Asaribi" I hadn't actually interacted with anyone on this team aside from like talking to Shino once because I asked him for help with something.

"Team 10 Hinata Hyuuga, Sasuke Uchiha and Takezou Rakurai, your Jonin Sensei is Asuma Sarutobi"

_'Wait what… huh didn't expect that… our team is all quiet people- the edgy kid with the horrific backstory too sullen and festering in his own hate to talk, the shy girl of a renown clan with no confidence and Me.'_

"Alright when you come back from lunch you're Sensei will show up then so go eat," Iruka said before walking out of the class as the bell rung.

I went outside and as I did so snagged Sasuke by the arm not letting him go and kindly asked Hinata if she wanted to eat with us, she stutteringly accepted following behind as Sasuke tried to free himself of my grasp by hitting my hand and wriggling it around, now I'd be a very poor swordsman if I let go of my sword so easily so I built up quite the death grip during my training. As I went to sit down, I let go of Sasuke making him rub his now sore wrist, Hinata sat down quietly while before Sasuke went off at me.

"Don't bloody touch me! You damned oaf! We may be on the same team, but I don't have to like or talk to you! I don't need the either of you anyway this whole team farce is meaningless to me." he stated angrily with a dark scowl before he could stomp off to sulk somewhere I spoke up.

"You may not but I'm fully aware of what you have made your life goal, and right now I can tell you safely that having a member of the strongest clan in Konoha on your team, that being Hinata, will help you immensely to get there." He stopped in his tracks for a moment he didn't turn to me though.

"What the hell do you know?! You don't have any clue what my goal is!" he said voice full of venom.

"S-sa-suke… w-why d-don't-" Hinata started trying to stutter out but stopped herself.

"Your brother right?" I said simply waiting for him to turn, I mean it was obvious really, even if I hadn't known beforehand. It's not like anyone tried to hide the fact that Itachi did what he did, let alone the fact that the thing with the drawing from forever ago, though whilst I had talked to my Aunt about how in bothered me that I had done it without really thinking, I wasn't really sure how much it bothered me. I mean I actually didn't remember what Itachi looked like to be completely honest and I still don't because it's just been that long at this point that I don't remember.

"What would you know?" he said turning to us, scowl still present.

"I don't and that's why I want us to come together and talk as a team, become friends of some kind so we can rely on one another for things like that, I'm fully willing to dedicate myself you either of your dreams, if you have a goal bigger than your current self then I want you to know I'm here to help you no matter the cost," I said looking at the two of them, this was sort of my plea bargain because I literally had nothing else to do with my life so helping them out seemed like a worthy cause for my sword. Well I did have my family sure, but they aren't something I can dedicate myself to like I can my team.

"Tch! What about you then? What kind of goal do you have?" Sasuke asked after a moment of pause.

"I'll be honest kiddo-" he cut me off "Don't call me that we're the same age!" I waited to continue "Anyway, I don't have a goal to be quite honest, I reached mine, that was finishing my Kenjutsu apprenticeship and for the moment I've done that. My only other goal is to write a book on philosophy and its relation to swordsmanship." I finished waiting to hear his response, what I had said was mostly accurate, I joked about Musashi's writings and recreating it but I'd probably get more out of it if I went on my own little soul searching journey to write it all.

"That sounds way too convenient and like some bullshit." The Uchiha replied with narrowed eyes.

I sighed "Well you got me Sasuke! I just want to live to see sixteen! That's it! My life's goal is to reach sixteen and preferably not die in some horrible war." I said sardonically, again which wasn't inaccurate, I would like to live to see sixteen in this world.

"I'm leaving." He disappeared scowling.

I sighed and just went back to trying to make small talk with Hinata, she was really kind, I don't think I ever realised that much from these years of being in the same class though I supposed that had to do with the fact that we only talked a few times. We didn't talk too much though, I asked her if she wanted to come with me to talk with Naruto about his passing the test even though he failed and, but she shyly stuttered her way to deny it, which was fine she could make her way to talking to him and expressing her feelings on her own.

Naruto was trying to get Sakura's attention when I wandered over to him, Kiba was playing with Akamaru nearby, I gave him a small wave and he nodded back.

"Hey Naruto, I wanted to talk to you." I said getting his attention.

"Yeah whats up Take?" He replied looking away from his teammate.

"So how did you manage to get you Hitai-ate? Cause I don't feel like Iruka suddenly had a change of heart afterwards." I said. He went on to detail what happened missing out all the bits like him being the Kyuubi Junchuriki and what was said exactly by Mizuki.

"That explains Mizuki not being here then, so what about this clone jutsu you learned? Can you show us one? It sounds pretty interesting." I asked with my curiosity peaked by the tale he told me.

"Sure!" He said making a cross hand seal before there was suddenly two of him.

"Whoa that's cool!" I said walking around the clone looking it over, I poked it and it was solid.

"How'd you make it solid like this? Is it similar to water clones and wood clones?" he seemed somewhat stumped when I asked that.

"I dunno" he said scratching his cheek.

The bell tolled after that and he dispelled the clone as we headed in, I went and took a seat with Hinata, while trying to urge Sasuke to sit with us through looks without saying anything, he blew me off and sat in the corner next to the windows. Slowly Jonin started coming in and taking their teams out, eventually a man with darkish skin wearing a guardian Shinobi sash came in with a woman that had dark hair and red eyes.

"Team 10? I'm Asuma follow me." The man, Asuma said, we followed him out Sasuke behind us.

I heard the woman speak as we left "Team 8? I'm Kurenai, come with me."

**88888888**

Asuma took us to a training field he had reserved and sat on a rock getting us to sit in front of him, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it before speaking to us.

"Alright, now that we're here lets get to know each other, I don't need your life story or anything just your name, likes, dislikes and your dreams or goal but you don't have to say those if you don't want to." He blew smoke to his side as he finished speaking.

"Sensei?" I asked, "What about you all we know is your name." I looked at him expectantly.

"Ah, I guess you're right, I'm Asuma Sarutobi, I like my friends, I don't really have any dislikes and I have no dream to share as such." He scratched his cheek.

"I guess I'll go next then. I'm Takezou Rakurai, I like spending time with my family or learning Kenjutsu from my Aunt and for things I dislike…" I paused "I hate loud people that're obnoxious, I don't like prideful idiots that can't see the truth or people that think we're bound to a certain fate." I paused thinking about my dreams. "As for dreams or goals, I suppose living to see my baby sister and niece get married is up there." I finished.

"Huh…" Asuma breathed with an understanding look.

Sasuke was next "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything… what I have is a goal… nay an ambition to _kill_ a very certain man and restore my clan to its former glory.." He said with the same dark scowl and edgy vibe.

"Fuck that's edgy and dark, did you practice that?" I blurted out on accident, Asuma coughed and laughed a little while Sasuke was annoyed and Hinata seemed unsure of how to react.

"Moving on," Asuma said between coughs.

"I-I'm H-Hinat-ta H-Hyuuga, I l-like… My family-" she stuttered out before stopping herself. "I-ah… dislike violence… and I-I want… never mind." She stopped herself finishing.

"Right now that we're all acquainted let's go do some D-ranks or something unless you lot want to stick around out here and do nothing?" he asked.

I stood up eager to get the chores of D-ranks over with. Before we knew it, we were off to the Hokage tower to the mission desk, entering the large circular room I noticed a stack of scrolls that were lining up the large desk where the Hokage and several Chunin were sat. The withered old man that was the leader of our village was wearing a white formal outfit with the large hat the had the fire kanji on it sitting in front of him.

"Asuma! Looks like you've got your team then? How're you three doing?" the man once known as a God asked us with a fatherly smile.

"Good Lord Hokage." the three of us replied.

"So what D-rank will you be taking? There's babysitting, Gardening for an elderly woman and mail delivery." He stated taking the scroll for each out onto the desk.

"Er… I guess we'll nab the gardening one, I can't imagine that one going wrong." Asuma answered.

The Hokage threw the scroll to sensei then we were ushered out and we made our way out of the building onto the street at which point stage one in my master plan was initiated.

"Sasuke I bet I can plan more efficiently than you and I bet the Uchiha aren't even as good as people used to say!" Man, that sounded odd even to me, but he took it at face value and excepted my challenge.

"Tch! Yeah, right loser you're on!" Sasuke said smirking.

And thus began our competition until Hinata beat us thoroughly, I wasn't sure why I was so surprised that she was good with her hands considering the Hyuuga signature style is the _Jyuuken_ and their entire style is around taijutsu hand to hand stuff. Sasuke was slightly bothered I think as well though I'm sure he was still happy I didn't get more than him in fact I had the most trouble out of everyone, not sure how but I managed to make one of the ones I was doing explode covering me in the dirt. I was laughed at as was expected, our client wasn't all that impressed though she thought it was a waste of material and said that if it happened again she wouldn't pay us, I was extra careful after that though. When we were done and got paid Sensei let us off for the day and told us to meet him again tomorrow at the same training grounds we were at earlier before Hinata and Sasuke could run off I asked them if they wanted to come to my house.

"Why would you invite us to your house?" Sasuke said giving me a look.

"I-I'm n-not sure f-father w-would let m-me…" Hinata said sadly.

"Your dad doesn't control you Hinata you're allowed to do what you want, also the reason was so you could meet my family cause I'm sure my Mum and Dad would want to meet either of you at some point, so better to do it now." I stopped for a moment then continued "That and at some point, I'd like to know where you guys live, because I don't know, and it'd be nice for future reference when any of us need it." I got another questioning look from the slowly thawing out Sasuke and a confused look from Hinata.

"I don't care, I'm going home." The Uchiha stated as he turned to leave my hand shot out and latched onto his wrist again, a pleasant smile rising on my face as I began to drag the boy. Almost literally kicking and screaming, but more death threats and hitting me.

"I- I'll go to," Hinata said quietly walking alongside us.

"Cool let's head there now then. Oh! And if you don't like hugs or physical contact then you'll want to be fast otherwise my Mum will have you in one when she sees you." I specified by looking at the still annoyed-looking Uchiha.

**888888**

"My just look at you! You're so adorable!" My mother said dragging Hinata into a tight hug, the poor girl looked frightened at how sudden it was, thusly she was suffocated in my mother's endless love.

I smirked at the Uchiha who had jumped back slightly to keep from being grabbed, Dad was in the doorway to the kitchen holding Akatsuki with a smile on his face as he watched my shy teammate be let down from a hug, Sasuke was schooling his scowl next to me as I had a shit-eating grin on my face watching him. He was pissed off sure, but he had also decided that it would probably go easier if he resigned himself to what was happening for the moment, that and he'd probably spar with me and beat my shit into the dirt.

"So Sasuke are you next?" I asked laughing when he paled somewhat, even though it was near barely noticeable with his already pale complexion.

"Takezou this is your team then?" Dad asked.

"Yeah, Dad and Mum this is Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuuga, Hinata, Sasuke this is my Mum- Kaede and Dad- Nobuyuki." I introduced them briefly.

"Good to meet you Sasuke," Dad said after putting my sister down to shake his hand.

"You too Sir," Sasuke said stiffly shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you as well Hinata," he said to the now dishevelled girl.

Not too long after that Hinata had to go and Sasuke saw his opening and left as fast as he could, my parents found his want to leave funny and laughed about it after he was gone, I ended up playing with Akatsuki while Mum cooked dinner for us. Dad said there was something he wanted to talk to me about at some point during the week, so I should remember to come find him when he wasn't busy, and I didn't need to be with my team. The next day when I arrived at the training field Sensei was there smoking while he read from a scroll of some kind, and so I headed over to him and waved.

"Yo! Sensei!" I called to him.

He turned to me returning a smaller wave "How's it going Takezou?" he asked as I came up to him, man he was tall.

"I'm doing well," I responded shortly.

"Well that's good, I'll tell you what we're doing when the other two get her-" he looked behind me "Speak of the devil-"

"And he shall appear" I finished for him.

"Alright Sasuke, Hinata now that you're all here I can talk about what I wanted to, putting it simply I want to test you lot because the stat blocks the academy give generally don't mean much in actual ability." He blew some smoke to the side away from us. "I'd like to see how well you all perform together without any team training" he pulled out a blue flag and planted it.

"Now I'm somewhere in this area with this exact same flag, your goal is to get it from me and depending on how well you do will depend on how long we do this exercise for." He said dispelled into chakra smoke.

"Oh cool shadow clone," I said lamely watching the spot where our newly assigned Jonin had disappeared from.

"Hey, Hinata are you able to use your Byakugan?" I asked her, she nodded seemingly understanding what I was getting at activating it.

"That's pretty easy then isn't it?" Sasuke asked with a confident smirk.

"It could be, but he's probably trying to see how well we can fight together in some amount tandem instead of the search and destroy," I said looking to him.

"I-I've found S-Sensei!" Hinata announced pointing in the direction for us.

"Hinata could you guide us there then? Sasuke and I will be right behind you to keep you safe, we gotta come up with a strategy to capture the flag before getting there as well." I finished getting a nod from Hinata, Sasuke dashed off ignoring me.

I sighed "C'mon Hinata lets go make sure he doesn't get caught in any traps Sensei might hav-" there was a yell followed by a few curses.

We dashed off after him to find him back up against a tree slightly frightened, with kunai and shuriken covering all of the trees within a five-meter radius.

"That's what you get for not trying to work with us and assuming you had all necessary knowledge," I said condescendingly watching as he scowled at me. "Also, you know that's exactly what the substitution jutsu is for, you didn't need to dodge them," I added.

"P-Please l-let me g-guide us S-Sasuke!" Hinata said leading us further towards where she could see Sensei held up.

We followed closely behind Hinata dodging shuriken traps and a pitfall or two, Sasuke still seemed annoyed to have to work with people, Hinata seemed like she might be gaining he confidence, I also found out that the training grounds were fucking enormous like a forest, it was insane. As we approached a clearing Hinata stop using her Byakugan when we got within viewing distance.

We burst into the clearing… and it was the same one we started in… I thought the Byakugan could see through genjutsu? None the less Sensei was standing there in the centre with the flag.

"Took you guys long enough" Sensei said dropping his cigarette and crushing it.

"So-" before I could say anything our avenger attacked on his own.

Sasuke went in for a taijutsu assault but, I don't think he was aware of our sensei's fighting style, he was thusly tossed into the air and thrown back to us, where I tried to catch him but instead was knocked to the ground and used as a springboard by the Uchiha. Hinata helped me up and then I dashed forward catching Sasuke as he was tossed at me but this time I caught his hand and spun around throwing him back allowing him to go back with more speed, Sensei went for a kick that Sasuke managed to use to springboard himself into the air and let off a fireball that slammed into the ground as Sensei substituted out of with a log.

Sasuke landed down next to me and Hinata who was waiting for this moment "Sasuke we've got a plan stop thinking a genin can go against a jonin and let me explain." He turned angrily and gave in.

After a few moments of explaining Sasuke and I ran forward, we both ran through hand seals though he was faster and he launched another fireball that was enhanced by a whirlwind jutsu I used creating a small tornado of sorts that carved its way towards sensei who looked mildly shocked before he went to dodge the jutsu and was subsequently attacked by Hinata with her Byakugan flaring, she grabbed the flag from him. I cheered for Hinata when she did so, the Uchiha had a vaguely satisfied look.

"That was great and all, but you should've worked together like that from the beginning." A voice said from behind us.

**88888888**

Sensei ended up spending the day beating teamwork into us, or more specifically making Sasuke work with us to achieve a goal, it was rather surprising considering all I remembered about the man was that he was laid back and like a second father to Shikamaru. Though I suppose that's not a lot of information to work off of so it wasn't all that fair of me to judge him by that, anyway when we were done and mostly out of chakra he had us go and do a few D-ranks, which went better than last time, I didn't have dirt explode on me. I challenged Sasuke some more to give him a bit competition and more reason to do the work.

It wasn't too hard to rope the kid into doing stuff if I challenged the pride of the Uchiha's, it was an asshole thing to do but it was probably the easiest thing I could do at this point to make him enjoy his time with us, that and one time I went and got Naruto because he wanted to challenged Sasuke, they fought for quiet a while before Asuma decided to step in, not long after that Kakashi showed up looking for Naruto.

"There you are Naruto" The silver-haired man said, smut in hand.

"Sensei!" Naruto yelled leaving Sasuke standing next to Asuma.

I took the moment to get up from the tree I was against "You're Kakashi-Sensei, right?" I asked walking over to them.

"And you're Asuma's student," he said cheerily with a smile as I rolled my eyes at the man who was now already making quite the impression for our first meeting.

"Gee did it hurt trying to figure that out? Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Kakashi, I'm Takezou Rakurai" I held out my hand to shake his.

"Ah…" he stood there for a moment while I waited then he slapped my hand like it was a high-five.

"Sensei you're pretty socially challenged, aren't you?" I asked. "I mean you're reading smut in public" I specified as I did so I heard Asuma try to stifle a laugh off to the side of us.

"How do you know what it is?" the Jonin asked eyeing me with his brow arched, awaiting my answer curiously.

"Because I read 'Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi' and wanted to see if the author had other books like it, but all his other work was smut." I said vaguely annoyed about the issue still, which I felt like it was a fair complaint right? Cause I mean the guy was a decent writer, even the bits of his smut I had checked out to see what it was like were actually decent.

"He's got you there Kakashi, reading that stuff all the time can't be good for you." Asuma said walking over.

Kakashi shrugged before picking up Naruto and disappearing as he started to protest, Asuma sighed and turned back to our little outing. I went over to Sasuke who was brushing dirt off himself, I wasn't sure if he wanted to spar or not, so I went over to Hinata, she was practising her Jyuuken on an imaginary opponent.

"Hey Hinata, do you want to spar for a bit? I don't think you and I ever got to face off against one another in the academy." She nodded to me.

We took our stances and waited for Asuma to call us to start, as soon as he did I dashed at her and went to kick at her head, she blocked following up by jabbing forward into my stomach. As I moved back trying to ignore the pain I kicked off the dirt back towards her and tried to get around her attack when she managed to catch me with another stab, I collapsed to the ground winded. When I recovered, I pulled myself into a sitting position.

"Thanks for the match Hinata- Ah Man," I breathed a sigh "This is why I use swords instead! getting hit like that sucks!" I complained rubbing the spots were her attacks landed, they might even end up bruising.

"I don't think I've ever seen you use a sword despite talking about it Takezou" Sensei said watching us cigarette in hand.

"Oh, right I suppose you haven't, I kind of reserved using it for like C-ranks and stuff 'cause it would be unnecessary if I wore it all the time." I paused for a moment "Actually there is an entire aspect of my outfit I don't wear, that I have for missions where we'll be fighting." I said jumping to my feet and started popping my back earning a fair few audible clicks.

"What type of sword do you use?" Sasuke asked seemingly interested, though he had one in the show at some point, didn't he? So maybe I could be the one to get him into them.

"I can use most because that's how I was trained but the one I have is a Nodachi" I said stretching my arms with a sigh of relief as the tension left my body.

"Wait… Nodachi? Takezou are you trained to use Samurai weapons?" Asuma asked.

"Er… cause I wanted to learn Kenjutsu and my aunt loves the whole Samurai aesthetic, so she got me hooked on it too, therefore she ended up giving me Nodachi." I said.

"Isn't that one of the biggest standard blades you can get?" Sasuke asked still somewhat interested if his tone was anything to go by.

"Pretty sure yeah, but considering how tall I am it works out fine, I can bring it tomorrow if we aren't doing D-ranks?" I looked to Sensei he shrugged as if not knowing himself. "I've been meaning to train more with it anyway, how about that Sasuke? You seem interested in taking to swords I could help you get into it if you want?" he seemed to think about it for a bit.

"Sure" he said shortly.

* * *

**AN: Seya later.**


	6. Arc 2- Genin Days Part 2

**AN: Hello again.**

* * *

**Arc 2 part 2  
****Chapter Title: Woe is I**

* * *

How in the world was it that I spent six years learning how to use different swords and a few basic Kata for them, and yet still I had piss-all strength? Like seriously? How?

What have I done to earn myself a position wherein I haven't gained much of any actual muscle, you know that thing that is pretty important for this sort of thing? well I mean to be fair the only people I actually have to compare my strength to being Dad, Ume, Sasuke, and Hinata. The problem with that being that Sasuke and Hinata have the skill to make any attacks I do leave the impression of being weak, and with Dad and my Aunt they were like ten or twenty times stronger than me anyway.

I had tried to start building up my muscle a few times already, or like more than whatever I currently have from the training I've done, but I had this problem where if I set myself on something and get really into it and then have to take time away from it, if that happens then it becomes easier and easier to justify to myself ways and reasons to not go and do things. It was a rather troublesome part of my personality that transferred over and withstood the test of different lives. Suppose it's just innate laziness really.

That's not to say I'm bad at setting habits but rather I have to be aware of them at all times and be on my ass about them, same thing with my strength, this isn't to say that I'm weak but rather that it's hard to truly gauge my strength when I have so many people around me that are either stronger or make mine seem void.

It's a problem that I can't really solve until we start getting missions outside of the village or ones that involve fighting people, so there's a proper gage for it.

Anyhow there are more things for me to do today other than dwell on the state of my personal muscle growth, we were doing D-ranks again today so there was some fun to be had, not much else on for a while. I was ready for another day of boring chores if it meant keeping from anything insanely messed up like ending up on that mission to wave that Team 7 is bound to end up on, though I'm sure just thinking that will twist fate in some way to put us on the track towards it somehow.

Fate, causality, and whatnot all seemed to work in weird ways like that, as though they were always listening, always watching, as though your existence wasn't privy to the secrecy you know it to have. That or it's just coincidence which I find hard to believe, I was never really the type to accept that we were all bound to a single fate, but rather open to many in our choices, maybe there are defining moments in our lives that are there from the beginning, but how they turn out is to be decided by your volition.

I suppose that all comes down to how you perceive it, be it as deterministic as the world we live or notions of free will and Causality. That's what I meant when I said I hated those who resigned themselves to thinking we're all bound by Fate, I had meant Neji at the time, but I suppose it applies to everyone in general. Prophecies are a load of shit after all.

The philosophical aspect of life aside, I need to head to the tower to meet up with my team for the day. I didn't let myself get caught up in anything on the way to the tower like I normally would have, though when that happened, I usually left early in the morning so that I could. Not that getting caught in conversation with people is bad I suppose, I just lose track of time when it happens.

As I strolled up to the Hokage tower from the main road I saw Teams 7 and 8 there as well, 7 looked like they would rather be doing anything else while 8 except for Ino looked contempt, the aforementioned blonde having a glare off with Sakura while they made snide remarks at one another. I was just glad that they hadn't noticed Sasuke was waiting with Hinata and Sensei against a wall. I purposefully walked right between them to go to my team.

"Could you brain deficient anorexic cancerous growths shut the fuck up and stop actively making everyone else's lives more difficult because you want on some guys dick that doesn't even care that you exist and won't ever acknowledge you," I stated loud enough for everyone to hear as I walked by, usually I wasn't one for insulting people let alone publicly in a space where everyone and anyone could see and hear me, but this was just one of those situations where I felt it necessary to do such a thing.

"I- You!-" one of them started to make a comeback but I just blocked it out, I really couldn't give a shit for those gargoyles, if they wanted people to take them seriously let alone want Sasuke to see them, then why the hell didn't they just stop being pests and start training, because who'd have thought it but most people like strong partners be that physically or mentally. So this spat of theirs to be the daintiest flower on the battlefield with no strength to speak of and constant whining over some only makes them look bad.

Sensei sighed and shook his head. "You don't have to antagonize those girls every time you see them you realize that right Takezou?" he said as we walked into the tower itself and headed for the mission desk.

"Well yeah, of course. It's just a lot of fun to say stuff like that from time to time, that and nothing I said wasn't true- was it Sasuke?" I asked looking to the black-haired boy walking a few steps behind us with Hinata just in front of him, he just grunted out a 'Hn' turning to look away. "See he agrees."

"I'm sure he does," Asuma replied rolling his eyes as we stepped into the room where mission scrolls were handed out.

The room was just as dull and boring as ever, the Hokage the was there with a few Chuunin and one of his goons were loitering around, an old dude with bandages all over him. He looked familiar but I couldn't pin why that was the case, I wasn't actually paying attention as to what mission we got and just figured I'd get the others to tell me once we got where ever it was we were headed.

About twenty minutes later as we were well on our way to the mission I asked what we were supposed be doing for this because I had zoned out at the time and needed a reminder, and so Asuma-Sensei ever so graciously told me.

"So we're playing protection racket for a bunch of prostitutes then?" I asked after hearing what our mission was.

"Basically yeah," Asuma said coolly watching all three of us. "I'll be keeping an eye on all of you so don't worry if things get out of hand" he continued while we walked towards the building in which we were to meet our clients.

"So is it all of us protecting one- 'worker' at a time or are we each going and guarding one 'worker' each?" I asked curiously as to how this would play out.

"Well, I'll probably go and guard one on my own while you three guard one person together, surely you wouldn't manage to mess it up if you were all together." He explained as he opened the door into the brothel and the odors hit us like a brick wall.

"What's that smell!" Sasuke hissed grimacing as Hinata next to us cringed and pinched her nostrils blocking the smell out.

"Ah! There you are! You must be the Shinobi I acquired to protect the girls?" A taller man- around six foot all if I had to guess- with clean well-kempt black hair, hazel eyes and a complexion on the lighter side, he was wearing a simple black three-piece suit with a white shirt and red tie, he spoke with an air of business about him. He held a gentle but firm smile and adjusted a tinted pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose, he held his arms open welcoming us over to him.

"You're Kurosawa then?" Asuma asked coming to stop a few feet from the man and shaking his hand. "It's good to meet you."

"My, you are a handsome gentleman, aren't you?" Kurosawa said lightly with a laugh. "These must be your- ah Genin was it?" he seemed rather happy with himself for remembering the details of Ninja ranks.

"Yeah, that's us," Asuma replied. "This is Hinata, Sasuke, and Takezou." He gestured to each of us. "They'll be the ones looking after your workers and making sure they're safe while going about their duties."

"That's lovely, now all I'll need you to do is travel with the Girls to the clients' house and make yourself scarce with Ninja magic while keeping an eye on the house, preferably from outside the room," Kurosawa explained to us as we walked towards a side room where an office was, in that office were two women dressed in Kimono's that had flowery bright patterns.

"There you are Mr. Kurosawa sir, are these our guards?" one of the women asked. She had tan skin, dark hair and emerald eyes, she was also in flat heels and a rather petite form.

"They are indeed Masumi." He replied walking past the women to the desk in the office and quickly pulling out something that I couldn't see what was. "Ah well this is where we depart and go our separate ways, but before I leave, I'll introduce yo-" He moved around the desk standing next to Masumi as the other woman cut him off.

"Don't worry, you go and work while we continue from here." The woman dismissed her boss and we watched as he took it in kind and left us. "Right well I'm Sunohara and like our boss said that's Masumi, we'll be in your care." Sunohara had somewhat pale skin with golden blonde hair and light brown eyes with a near gold look to them, she also had a rather impressive figure and bust all things considered.

Asuma quickly ran through our names and we introduced ourselves to the women before they started asking about who was headed where, it came to us heading out with Sunohara and Sensei going off with Masumi, at which point I had asked Sensei whether or not his girlfriend would approve of him going off with some brothel worker which made him deny the fact that he had one and made the workers laugh quite a fair amount before we set off with Sunohara to her clients house.

**888888888**

Gods I was beyond happy nothing happened while we were protecting or guarding? Sunohara. After the job with her we moved on to do the same for four other women before the day was up and we got paid, it was pretty uncomfortable to just be hanging out around someone's house like that while we waited for them to finish, let alone the part where we were all aware of what was happening.

Anyway with that all over and done with our Employer Kurosawa paid us extra because he felt bad for having kids- even if we were ninja- doing what we did, there was kind of an upside to that I guess.

Sasuke went straight home once we were free to disband for the rest of the day, Hinata went off somewhere to do something that I didn't catch what was about when she mumbled and stuttered it out and lastly I went to a Shinobi supply store that I often went to after our D-ranks to mournfully window shop, wishing that we could get a B or A-rank missions pay so that I might be able to actually afford the bits of armour and tools that I wanted.

that was definitely one of the weirdest and uncomfortable D-ranks I think we'll ever do.

On my way home from the shop I caught sight of my mother wandering through the street with my sister in tow, she was holding grocery bags in hand and seemingly trying her best to distract Akatsuki at the same time. Seeing as I often felt obligated to go above and beyond for my Mother, I immediately ran over to her and took a bag from her and used my other arm to pick my sister up before she could even turn to see what had happened- when she faced the direction of her assailant she found me standing next to her with my sister in my arm with her hands wrapped around my neck as she babbled on about me.

"Ah- Takezou. You're off missions for the day then?" She asked having recovered from the surprise of me robbing her.

"Yeah, it would seem that way," I said following in just behind her as she started walking back towards the house.

"So did you do anything interesting? Like save a princess or was it gardening for the elderly again?" there was a hint of smugness in her voice as she asked me about my day.

"Nothing so interesting as that, I just insulted those girls from my class that I mentioned fawning over Sasuke and then we went and guarded strippers or whatever when they went out from the brothel on house visits," I answered her as I did so I moved my arm around that held my sister to help her find better purchase on it.

"A brothel huh?" Her eyes seemed to lose light and her face took on a sweet smile and her words came out in a very threateningly sweet tone.

"a-ah y-yes… we uh didn't do anything beyond go out and help some of the workers thereby being their protection and whatnot." I answered uneasily only to become confused at Kaede's disappointed look.

"Oh come on Take! You're meant to be a boy yet you didn't even try something while you were there? I almost feel disappointed that I don't get to reem you for doing something like that." She dramatically threw her face into her hands. "Woe is I for having birthed such a dull son! One so boring as to not even try illicit acts when given the chance! For this I have naught but to be glad for him preserving his self." She faked a wail with a bright mirth in her tone as she went on.

"Woe is I for such a woman like my mother who wants only for me to do things I shouldn't so that she might experience what it's like to be a normal parent! For having such a woman mad at I for not doing something unbecoming of me!" I countered back with a smile I couldn't get rid of.

I loved her for this sort of thing, she used to do it when I was younger when she got confused at my behaviour wherein a normal kid might have gone around writing on walls or whatever, I being a reincarnate or what have you I just drew in the colouring books I was given. Eventually, she got over it and when she realized how smart I seemed to be, she would do this 'Woe is I' things that I always found funny and I joined in on them because she looked beyond happy whenever I did.

Suppose that just comes from the fact that I love to please Kaede and Nobuyuki, they were my new parents and having lived with them for twelve years has put them in a perspective of mine in which I would literally do anything for them. People can say 'oh if the situation was right, I'd kill for them.' But with this family I was apart of here I felt far stronger than that about them, maybe it was on a similar level to what I remember Itachi's being like towards Sasuke. Because I would murder hundreds despite my own disdain for conflict and hate of killing people for them, they mean that much. That I would drop all pretenses of my sanity and person to save for them, they are my biggest weakness, but I suppose my team is moving into that territory as well.

That's something that I'm fine with, but the problem comes from the idea of the Chuunin Exams that are going to show face eventually, they are something that I won't be able to slip up in, my life and theirs will be on the line. Death doesn't mean much to someone like myself who is aimless and has no ambitions but the moment I realized my connection to these people in my life, it became something that I didn't want to have happen when it could make these people sad or angry.

I just hope nothing happens or that at the very least Orochi doesn't pop up and that I don't have to watch Neji fight Hinata, because if I see that bastard lay a hand on her I might really snap. She's like a sister to me, even if we've only been on a team for such a short amount of time, seeing Sasuke get stabbed or crushed would likely have a similar outcome from me.

Who knows though? I'd say it's all up to fate, but I just dissuaded my belief in the magnanimous entity of fate herself controlling us like that didn't I? Still, even if she does exist, I hope that we get dealt a fair card and not one of constant ruin.

* * *

**AN: Farewell.**


	7. Arc 2- Genin Days Part 3

**AN: if you don't know what a Haori is or don't care to search it up, it's the same as the red coat that Jiraiya wears and Tsunade's green coat, those are what a Haori is.**

* * *

**Arc 2 part 3  
****Chapter Title: C Rank in the bank**

* * *

After putting on my long-sleeved shirt on over my mesh armour I picked up the crimson Haori Ume had given to me, then picked up the Nodachi in its sheath from being leaned against the wall, I really need to get some bracers and greaves like Aunty had. Anyway, with my mission gear on I grabbed a bag that I put rations in with a few other things and left the house saying goodbye to Mum and Dad on the way out. I headed straight for the main gate, when I got there I saw Kotetsu and Izumo at the sign-in, I gave them a wave. Asuma, Hinata, and Sasuke were already there, did I mention that I was ten minutes late? Cause I am.

"What the hell took you so long loser? We were meant to meet ten minutes ago." Sasuke stated turning away from me annoyed sounding as ever, though he seemed like he was rearing to leave.

"Ah, well a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around" I answered as Asuma made a choked noise.

"S-so long as you arrive…" Hinata said quietly.

"Alright time to head out we need to hurry this will take us a while to reach, Wave is a long walk," Asuma stated we all took off at an acceptable running pace.

Did I forget to mention the mission? Cause if I did we're headed to Wave because Team 7 sent for back up after Kakashi was bedridden by chakra exhaustion, Kiba and Naruto were injured pretty bad too from what was said, I think Sakura was the only one that's wasn't physically injured only mentally or emotionally damaged from the whole ordeal. It would take us about two and a half days or just under to get to where they were in Wave, our goal was to provide backup for Team 7 while they recovered after confirming that S-rank missing-nin Zabuza Momochi was working with Gatou the man trying to kill their bridge builder. I was actually pretty excited just to have the chance to see one of the legendary Mist swordsmen, that and I liked Zabuza and the girl? Boy? With him from what little I could drag up about them in my memory.

We settled down for camp when it got dark.

"Alright I'm going to do a parameter, I want Hinata to look for kindling, Sasuke I want you to catch, kill and skin us some rabbits preferably two or three, lastly Takezou I want you to get the fire started for that kindling Hinata's collecting." Sensei disappeared into the surrounding area.

It didn't take too long to kick up a fire especially considering I learned a few small fire chakra things from dad, he had this one that he used when lighting his cigarettes after I got the fire started Sensei arrived back and sat down, Hinata came back with her arms filled with sticks. Sasuke arrived with two rabbits about twenty minutes later, he skinned them, and I put them out over the fire, what had my team's confusion was when I busted out some seasonings and sauces. What? I came prepared. I wasn't going to eat bland food, I learned how to cook for a reason and that was to satiate my hunger as well as make people happy with good food.

My team seemed to really enjoy what I managed to make out of what we had, which was nice, there was no better feeling as a cook then when people gleefully ate your food. I should know I spent years learning most of what I know there and had the rest of my knowledge filled in by Kaede when she taught me, man, I really enjoyed learning to cook with her it was a lot of fun, I look forward to teaching the same stuff to Akatsuki when I can, that's one of my favourite parts of my life this time around I can actually be the older brother I that I wanted to be but didn't get much of a chance to.

When we left the next morning it was maybe five or six am, we arrived on the coast of the Land of Waves around noon and it took us another hour to get to the village Team 7 were held up in. My first impression was that it was really misty and foggy, thankfully Hinata guided us around without much problem, we heard Naruto before we saw him, he was running around like a headless chicken yelling about wet dog smell…?

The mist cleared up around the small fishing village meaning Hinata didn't need to have her Byakugan on for too long, Naruto came running along the boardwalk we were on without looking ahead as he ran from someone and crashed into Sasuke knocking him over and falling on the ground himself, Kiba and Akamaru weren't far behind but managed to stop before slamming into us.

"Sasuke?!" Naruto basically yelled as the Uchiha threw the small blonde off him.

"Hey, Naruto where's Kakashi? We're here to help protect the bridge." Asuma cut in before the two could squabble, they did glare at one another either way.

"I can take you there, just follow me," Kiba said standing a little straighter.

We followed him through the 'streets' which were more along the line of boardwalks or a really long wharf, to a house where Sakura was currently talking to an older man who took a swig from a flask, she looked up to see us and her face got immensely brighter, then she yelled about her 'Sasuke-kun!' I actually nearly threw up when I heard her say it, I wanted to save the kid the horror of her fawning over him and spoke up.

"Sakura where's your Sensei? Asuma needs to talk to him about how we're supposed to help." She stopped in her tracks and looked me irritated for a second before turning to Asuma.

"Oh! Sensei is inside! He's still resting from Chakra Exhaustion though." She said leading Asuma inside.

"I hope you're grateful for me stopping her from jumping all over you." I said to the pale boy, he 'Hn' in response turning away with a vaguely annoyed look.

"So what were you two doing before we arrived?" I asked Naruto and Kiba as we began walking around while they talked.

**8888888**

We were standing in a grove next to the house the bridge builder lived in and Naruto had just explained some cool ability he found out about his clones, apparently they allowed for him to transfer information from the clone to himself so theoretically he could learn faster if he made a bunch of clones training at the same time. Made me want to learn the jutsu, he and Kiba were learning tree walking and water walking, so with every good intention possible I bet Sasuke I could learn it faster than he could and faster than Naruto could despite the boy having a head start.

"Hya!" I said slashing a mark four meters up the tree and jumping back off.

"Guh!" Sasuke bounced off his by a meter or so higher than me.

simultaneously we heard ten Naruto's curse as they landed on their heads.

Hinata was at the front of the house learning to walk on water because she had learned tree walking already at the Hyuuga compound, so that left Kiba, Sasuke, Naruto and I were racing to see who could learn it faster. Naruto was actually only at around the same point Sasuke and I were, though that was probably because we had rather high chakra control, from what people had told me – that being Dad and Sensei apparently, I had a decent if not high level of control but lacked the mental fortitude to use it that well, which was fair considering that chakra is still new to me so of course, I'd be holding back with it. It may have been twelve years and some change since coming here with the last six or so spent learning about chakra, but it still confused me at times.

Asuma had decided to take up watching over the bridge builder while Kakashi wandered around with his book in one hand and a crutch in the other, the others might not have able to see much passed his meanderings but I could see that he was keeping his eye on us more than he let on, like he expected something to go wrong. Can't say it doesn't bother me, cause that's really concerning, why would he think something would go wrong? Was it 'cause of Naruto? Or was it because of how many of us there were or maybe it was the clan heirs? Who knows.

I finished up attempting the get higher in the tree climbing around three or four in the afternoon while Sasuke and Naruto continued onward, I managed to make it up about eight meters now which was pretty awesome, though the whole idea of tree walking and water walking was just amazing in of itself considering it was left to miracles performed by deities in a few religions back in my previous life, though the idea of it was one that all things considered seemed physically possible it's just that you wouldn't be able to walk but rather sprinting so fast you keep yourself above. Not that its entirely possible to hold very long, though there were people who did that on motorbikes proving that it was possible at the least.

One of the first things I did upon seeing the kitchen aside from cringing and getting a dirty look from Tsunami was to ask if I could do the cooking, she was very hesitant if pissed off at my reaction, but after some coercing she gave in and let me when I convinced her to go rest, while my team had seen a small side of my cooking ability on our way here, they'd yet to see what I could do in an actual kitchen. Me being the over-prepared person that I was I happened to have a sack of rice in my bag that I brought, Asuma kept laughing when I suddenly got out an apron that I had written 'Don't disturb the cook' on, Sasuke had come inside at this point saying Naruto was still training, his face contorted with confusion as well when he saw me. Kiba thought the world of it and kept saying he really wished he had a camera.

This went on for about two hours until I finished what I was making and asked Tsunami for her opinion, she seemed thoroughly surprised and happy with what I had done, I called everyone for dinner dishing it up. What I had made was honey-garlic shrimp with stovetop rice, it was a wonder what you could with so few ingredients, it was nice to work with seafood because seeing as Konoha is so inland its quite expensive to have seafood all the time. Heh, everyone seemed to love it.

"I had no idea you could cook like this Takezou!" Kiba said in-between bites wolfing it down.

"Er… yeah well I can, it's kind of one of my hobbies." I said a little flushed, it was nice to hear praise about this sort of thing seeing as I normally just cook for my family.

"This puts a little more to explaining how you cooked the rabbit on the way here," Sasuke said in passing as he finished up his.

"Takezou," Asuma said shortly taking a drink from a glass of water before continuing "I hope you don't plan to bring food supplies like this on _all_ our missions?" He stared at me for a moment, his eyebrow arched.

"Why wouldn't I? cooking is fun and it's not like it's all that heavy unless I start bringing my own utensils." Actually, that was a good idea.

"Please don't, if you do for the love of the Hokage get yourself a sealing scroll." He replied shaking his head with a slight smirk tugging at his mouth.

I crinkled my nose in distaste "I couldn't figure that stuff out, so I gave up on it." I said scratching my chin, the whole sealing and sealing jutsu crap was super complicated and I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so I don't plan on trying to use it or learn it.

He left it at that and I ended in a conversation with Tsunami about cooking recipes, we shared a few between one another, she was a really nice person once I got to know her. Whilst I was getting ready to sleep I remembered a character in one of my favourite shows, his name eluded me at the time, but I was sure he also had some form of red hair and was known for his cooking to some degree.

**8888888**

Hinata and Sakura were tasked to go with Tazuna when he left for the bridge, Asuma went with them as well mainly in case things somehow got bad really quickly, Naruto hadn't returned last night but did about thirty-odd minutes after Tazuna left, he came home going on about this super pretty girl and how she the most beautiful person he'd ever seen. She had said something to him as well something he shared with us.

"People are truly strong when they're fighting for their precious people," he said nodding to himself.

"Sounds like you agree with that then?" I asked him.

He nodded again with a smile "Yeah! I agree with what Haku said entirely!"

"Unless you've recovered from working yourself to the bone then I'll have to have you sit training out for the day" Kakashi said watching his student.

"Aww man! No, I'm feeling fine! I could run forever!" he said trying to dissuade his Sensei.

Not ten minutes later we were outside training again, Naruto kicked our arses at it, he had nearly gotten it down pat he could get at least six meters higher than us and considering` the tree was probably twenty-odd meters tall it was quite the achievement. Sasuke got fired up and started trying much harder, after two hours he had caught up to Naruto who had hit another roadblock. I caught up to them not much after, around noon Hinata, Sakura, Sensei, and Tazuna came back for lunch and Sensei said he wanted to swap Hinata and Sakura out with two of us so that it wasn't just them, I volunteered and Kiba lost the game of rock, paper scissors they did so he was settled with me and Sensei.

we headed up to the bridge at around one, I knew there wasn't going to be any trouble but I still brought my Nodachi anyway, it got the ire of Tazuna who asked me about it.

"Don't see too many teenagers walking around with Samurai swords like that." He said swigging from his flask.

"Err… I'm only twelve going on thirteen…" I responded.

"What! Your near as tall as I am!" he spluttered out.

"Yeah I am, though to be fair my Dad is about as tall as Sensei" I pointed my thumb over at Asuma standing several heads above all of us. "So I wouldn't be surprised if I end up as tall as him"

When we got to the bridge the first thing I noticed and thought was _'Fuck that's a huge bridge'_ I like to imagine it was right to think that, Sensei went wandering setting up a parameter while Kiba and Akamaru went around getting scents of the builders so they'd know if one of them disappeared while they did that I walked around looking vaguely imposing so the builders would feel like we were actually doing things instead of loitering. When Kiba came back from getting scents he and I had a few games of rock, paper scissors until Asuma returned and decided to linger around on one of the support beam stacks sitting around, he started smoking immediately, though I think that was to give the air of calmness, so the builders weren't feeling jumpy about the situation.

I played around with pushing my chakra into the Nodachi because it was something I hadn't done too much with, Ume said she could split a man in two when she did it to her Katana so it has some merit to trying it at the least though I wouldn't use it on anything unless I was at the house or back in Konoha so I could work any damage or bluntness out of the blade if I messed it up. The normally black blade flared with a blue aura around in creating a heavier pressure in the air, it was pretty intense. Giving it a few test swings to make sure I could hold my concentration, slowly I tried to push what little fire chakra I could muster and control into it. In a matter of a second there was a small explosion of intense heat the knocked me over onto my ass the chakra dissipated from it when it fell from my hands. A fair few people looked my way I waved them off "Er… sorry about that!"

The rest of the day passed on without incident and we headed back to the house at around six that night, when we arrived Hinata and Sakura were sparring on the water, they seemed to be about to finish up though, they had the water walking down pat. They came off the water Sakura cheering to herself about doing so well and Hinata smiling somewhat, I went over to them.

"That was awesome! Man, I wish I was that good with my chakra" I said giving the two girls a fond smile.

"T-thanks T-takezou" Hinata stuttered out.

"Yeah! Me and Hinata are way better than the boys!" Sakura cheered pumping her fist into the air. "B-but not Sasuke of course!" she said afterward to herself and it put me back in a spot where I suddenly didn't like her again.

"So it's going to be a week since you guys encountered Zabuza tomorrow right?" I asked the pink-haired girl pushing past my disgust with her fawning over my teammate.

"Yeah, it will be" a voice cut in.

"Kakashi Sensei!" Sakura basically screamed, he was out of his crutch.

"You're ready to fight off the big bad then?" I asked the man.

His eye crinkled into a smile "I'll be sure to tell Zabuza you called him 'the big bad' next time he stops in then should I?" he asked holding that smile.

"Sure." I said without thought "Oh! And could you get me his autograph too? I always wanted to meet one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist" the masked Jonin smirked.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to but I can try," he said with a shrug.

"Do you think he'd appreciate it if I cooked a nice lunch for him?" I asked with all the seriousness I could muster.

"This isn't any laughing matter Takezou you buffoon!" Sakura shouted at me ruining the moment.

"Of course it is, how else to prepare for a deathly battle than to have a laugh and smile, I plan on being quite the jokester if Zabuza shows up, that or asking why he doesn't just threaten Gatou into giving all of his money or assets and killing him, definitely one of the two." I nodded agreeing with myself.

**8888888**

Today was supposedly the day.

Everyone was here, we had all since moved onto water walking having mostly mastered the tree walking, Naruto and I ended up losing to Sasuke and Kiba in the bet of who could get it down first. Kakashi was lingering around leaning against a post with his book out, Asuma was on his smoke break, Team 7 was loitering near Tazuna and Sasuke, Hinata and I were spread out around the bridge at possible attack points. Though I suppose it pays me to mention that Naruto was back with Tsunami and Inari after he overworked himself and had been asleep for the last twelve odd hours, Kakashi had decided to let him be seen as there were already so many of us. I had decided to take up writing the first scribbles of the book I wanted to write, while I was kicked up leaning on one of the supports with my feet dangling over the edge with my sword lying next to me, I was just jotting down bits and pieces of what I remember from Musashi's writings.

I had read the book maybe a year before I passed? So, I had a long period to try remembering from, I was glad for the memory fragments that would randomly assault my mind, if not for them then I wouldn't have gotten this far I don't think. Most of what I had was just ramblings of philosophies and such, I'm sure Ume would get a kick out of this when I was done.

it was around noon that a thick unnatural mist rolled in and the sounds of choked screams filled the air as Kiba and Akamaru started making noise shouting that they had arrived, there was a long drawn out silence before a burst of gravelly laughter filled the area.

"Hahaha! Just look at you! Did you bring more children out to play Kakashi? Did I beat so badly last time?" the Mist faded revealing a masked person standing next to a very imposing bandage covered Zabuza holding his wonderfully enormous sword.

"Maa… they're strong enough" Kakashi replied flippantly.

"Where's that loud orange brat? I wanted to get him back for what he did to me" The swordsman laughed in a gravelly rough tone.

"Zabuza please let's get this underway" an effeminate male voice sounded from the masked boy.

"Yes lets!" he yelled Zabuza and Haku split the groups into two.

I looked to my team and noticed Sasuke was like a deer in the headlights frozen up from the wave of pressure that had hit us, Hinata was trembling, I hadn't reacted to it all that much because of my Aunt and her constantly doing a similar thing by leaking her intents in the ambient chakra during fights. I looked at team 7 and Sakura looked like she might break down and cry. That left us with a shaky me, Kakashi and Asuma with Hinata if I could snap her out of her funk, I ran over to my teammates and started shaking them, so we could act before Haku got to us. '_Fuck Haku's fast!_' I thought watching him come our way.

"Hinata, Sasuke c'mon we need to fight!" Hinata slowly came back and shakily raised her hands to fight.

That was as good as I was going to get for now, with her at least we had a chance, I unsheathed my Nodachi and prepared to strike. Senbon flew towards us at an amazing speed, before I could deflect them they punctured my arm making it partially numb, Hinata slapped them away with her hands coated in chakra, with my left arm slowly becoming more numb and unusable I held the thick bladed sword in my right hand letting my left hand go limp.

"Well fuck," I said just barely dodging another barrage I looked back and realized with wide eyes the ones I just dodged hit Sasuke, while he finally had his head in the game he was also now bleeding and punctured all over his body.

"S-Sasu-ke" I heard Hinata stutter.

"You wake up yet sleepy head?" I said to the Uchiha.

"Hn" came his grunted response as I noticed his eyes flash red for a moment as he pulled a handful of the Senbon out and threw them back at Haku.

That was when I heard Kakashi saying something to Zabuza while he and Asuma were trying to get him.

"So Zabuza, one of our cute little genin wants your autograph do you think you could help him out?" he asked offhandedly as he dodged the huge butchers' sword.

Zabuza's haughty laugh carried throughout the bridge, Asuma was shaking his head at the antics of Kakashi while said Jonin looked somewhat miffed and offended at what he said being blown off. The guy was a good actor I had to give it to him.

"Heya Sensei!" I yelled deflecting two senbon with my sword "Ask him if he wants this lunch I made for him!" Haku stopped stunned for a second confused as a bento box came out of my bag, I held it in my nearly unusable left arm.

Before anything more could happen Naruto burst onto the bridge with all his orange fury, he seemed to notice how we were fearing and shot forward with a scream and punched Haku in the face breaking his mask. Naruto paused realizing who he was and started asking why he was there.

"I'm sorry Naruto," the Yuki clan member said quietly.

Before I knew it we were encased in a large ice dome that had mirrors everywhere, Haku started an insanely fast barrage of attacks leaving us each with a few more senbon, he was fast but not as fast as Ume was when she dueled me for the final time, I could keep up with the boy but it was a lot harder with my numb arm and heavy feeling right leg. This was so unfair god damn it, there was a short-gurgled choke making me snap my head in the direction of the sound. Sasuke collapsed before our eyes, a senbon through his throat, blood pooling as his corpse thumped against the concrete.

I choked out a hollow cry that caught itself in my throat as I blurred forward chakra flaring through the black blade as a gut curdling scream escaped me, I brought the sword down in a white rage on Haku, though he disappeared into the mirrors. Wrenching the blade from the broken, split concrete and threw myself towards the ice wielder again. I wasn't sure what had taken over me but I just acted.

* * *

**AN: Catch you lot later.**


	8. Arc 2 - Genin Days Part 4

**AN: Seeing as it's Christmas day where I live I decided to post an extra chapter, so there will still be one at the start of next month.**

* * *

**Arc 2 Part 4  
Chapter Title: It ends with Ship**

* * *

Everything sounded so distant, so quiet. My vision was blurred and no matter how much my body ached I continued to swing the heavy blade, it was flaring with a flaming blue aura as it crashed into the mirrors destroying them, finally, my eyes closed heavy and tired. When I woke someone was shaking me and I heard my name distantly being called, I noticed orange, black, blueish and green when my eyes opened blearily they weren't open for very long before I fell back asleep. I wondered about the depths of my mind, I washed through memories ones that surfaced of a life long since finished, I couldn't help but watch it with sadness. This went on for what felt like hours before I woke again.

There was a loud yell that woke me, I opened my eyes again noticing a blanket draped over me, the room was small and there was another person in the room also lying on a futon. I couldn't tell who it was. I started to sit up when I felt a sharp pain ring through my body, it made me fall back down. With a sigh I tried again this time with greater success, I breathed heavy and labored as I looked over my bandaged limbs. Before I knew it, I was in a coughing fit the shook my body with the most pain I'd ever felt in my life, the door burst open Sakura, Naruto, Hinata and Kiba came in, the charge led by the Blonde and Pinkett.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled as they entered ignoring the position I was in and went straight for my teammate, '_Good to know I'm loved so dearly, and you cared for me so much, I mean he's not even her teammate!_'.

"T-takezou" Hinata said coming to my side as I started another coughing fit into my arm.

Before anything more could be said Asuma stepped in making everyone but Hinata leave, I was glad that he had because my head was ringing from all the noise they made, Sensei sat down on my right with Hinata on the left in-between Sasuke and I.

"Well I'm surprised you're awake Takezou" Sensei said.

"What do yo-" I started coughing "Mean…" I breathed hard for a moment "Wait I figured it out."

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked me patiently.

another heavy breath "I-I was… fighting Haku? And Sasuke died… or stopped moving?" I paused looking for conformation "Then I just sort of moved… all I remember is my body aching and people yelling. It's all hazy" I put my hand on my forehead. "I know I blacked out anyway."

"Take it slow, you don't need to rush, you're still injured and barely recovered, let alone the chakra exhaustion." He said putting his hand on my shoulder steadying me.

We sat in silence for a while, my breathing evened out and my coughing seemingly wasn't as bad before I started talking again.

"So what did I miss?" I asked looking between Sensei and Hinata.

"Well, Gatou died along with a good portion of his men, Zabuza and his partner were the results of that. Kakashi and I didn't do too hot against Zabuza but it didn't matter, because Gatou showed up expecting a half-dead A or S-rank missing-nin, I haven't read his Bingo book entry, but what he got was two worn Konoha Jonin who wanted an out to check on their students. That lead to Gatou spouting dumb things and finding himself a little headless." He stopped letting me take it in.

"Guess he got ahead of himself then… Wait so where are Zabuza and Haku then?" I questioned watching Sensei roll his eyes at the pun.

"They're currently raiding all of Gatou's safe houses after Kakashi jokingly told them to go rob Gatou dead, though the Masked kid is down an arm after what you ended up doing to him." He replied watching me.

After the small chat Asuma said I should go back to sleep and rest as he left the room, Hinata stuck around in the room she was reading something that I couldn't see what was, I fell asleep not too long after. It wasn't much sleeping much as it was more like resting with my eyes closed, I let my thoughts wander where they wanted to, it lead me to think about what happened or at least what Sensei had said, he didn't tell me what happened to us so that's a little concerning I guess I mean shit, how'd Sasuke end up like that? Cause all I saw was him collapse then I didn't remember much after that.

I could still feel Hinata's presence while I rested, she must have been reading that book she had, which reminds me I don't remember what happened to the notebook I was noting stuff for my book in. Maybe that's what Hinata was reading? That wouldn't bother me if it were the case though because I definitely had some stuff in there meant for her though it was unfinished, I had some parts that were for Sasuke and Sensei too but Hinata's had the most written in it. Mostly it was about confidence and finding yourself that sort of stuff and a few titbits on fate and whatnot.

I eventually did fall asleep for real and woke up early in the morning though it wasn't anything out of the ordinary for me to wake at five am it was a habit from my last life, when I did wake I wasn't in as much pain nor did I go into any sort of coughing fits, I managed to make it out of the room before I collapsed onto the floor breathing heavily so that was cool I guess, I wanted to know what had caused me to get this bad but I wasn't sure. I closed my eyes and fell asleep there until someone seemingly found me passed out and moved me back to the room because when I opened my eyes again I was laying the sheets with Sasuke still unconscious nearby. Most of my day was spent in the room except when I managed to make it to the kitchen at noon or so for lunch, I dragged my self out to the veranda that faced the water feet dangling over the edge and sat there for a while before I must have fallen asleep again.

**8888888**

I changed into my t-shirt and shorts before putting my sandals on and going to do the laundry, it had been a week since I woke up, Sasuke was awake now as well, though it was only yesterday that it happened, apparently, we were staying with Team 7 until the bridge was finished. Zabuza and Haku came back visiting us for whatever reason, I heard them chatting with Kakashi while Sensei smoked lounging around near them, though I didn't hear what they talked about, Hinata still had my book I think which kinda bothered me because I had stuff I wanted to add but it was fine all things considered. I might go ask her about it today when I'm done doing my stretches and whatnot.

Hinata was in fact reading through a small notebook that looked like mine when I found her, she was in the yard of Tazuna's house watching Naruto and his clones fight against Kakashi.

"Find something you like?" I asked walking up to her from behind.

Her head snapped to me as I hobbled over "A-Ah T-Takezou! I was just reading this…" she trailed off.

I made an agreeing noise as I sat down "So did you get to the bit I wrote for you?" a confused look crossed her face for a moment. "It's not done yet but most of the stuff I wanted you to see is there."

"Was it the part here" she flipped through the pages to the third of four sections the book was split into.

"Yeah, it is." I took the book from her and started looking it over.

"W-when we were fighting on the bridge you dropped it" She said quietly.

"That makes sense, thanks Hinata. If you were wondering what this book is about its to do with the book I mentioned wanting to write forever ago." I said flipping through the pages skimming over them.

She continued to watch the match in front of us while I went through and added parts to the book when they finished up or rather when Naruto got sick of not being able to land a hit he came over to where we were sitting and asked me something that I couldn't answer.

"Hey Takezou, now that you're mostly recovered can you tell me what you did on the bridge?" he asked standing before me.

"What do you mean? What did I do?" I asked back confused as to what he meant.

"You started yelling like you were in pain and it got like feral sounding and the way you moved was super fluidly and you were waaaaayyy more powerful than I've ever seen you! And you were like exploding with Chakra!" He said describing it the best he could I'm sure, I couldn't remember anything about it beyond what I felt at the time.

"I don't know anything about that Naruto I blacked out after I saw Sasuke collapse." He looked at me puzzled.

"But you kep-" Naruto was cut off when Kakashi came over and dropped his hand on Naruto's head cutting him off with one of those crinkly eye smiles he seemed so fond of always doing.

"That's something for Takezou to know and you to never find out Naruto, it's like your little friend," he said steering the boy away as he tried to escape his hold.

I didn't get to hear any more about it after that which was annoying because they had the info I was missing, Hinata wouldn't say anything, Sasuke was avoiding me where he could and Sensei just happened always have something to do right as I would broach the subject. It was like that for the rest of the time we were in Wave, we stayed for a month in total before heading back to Konoha when the bridge was built, Naruto at some point seem to have caught the ire of the townsfolk and Tazuna because they named the bridge after him, kind of a weird thank you but I guess that's what they wanted to do.

The journey back was quiet and probably longer than it had to be, Kakashi wanted to walk back and seeing as we sort of had to give our reports at the same time we were left to walk with Team 7. Not that I minded, it left for more time to add to and fill in my notebook, Hinata had asked to read it again when I added more to her section so that was interesting, maybe what I said got to her?.

"I'm Home!" I announced walking through our front door and popping my neck getting some audible clicks, after that I slung my bag around off my back into my hand.

"Welcome Home!" I heard Dad say from further in the house, possibly the living room?

Mum came rushing through the house and before I could react picked me up in a tight hug I wasn't expecting, she turned me around and plopped me down so her back was to the door.

"I'm so glad your home!" she said smiling and as though she were about to pull the tale of what happened from me whether I wanted to or not.

"Yeah… I am too, it feels like forever since I left." I breathed a sigh as I looked around the entry and into the house down the hall. "The mission really sucked, we had a few close calls, and no one wants to fill me in on what happened after I blacked out" I finished looking to Mum for her to console me, and she did as she has done since the day I was reborn.

"How about you go put your dirty clothes in the laundry basket, wash up with a shower then come into the lounge and tell me about it? I might have some answers depending on what happened." She said with a soft reassuring smile, it was one that she wore often whenever she caught sight of me or noticed me looking in her direction.

Gods, I'll be honest being told what to do or having instructions made life so much easier, keeps me on track, I think that's why Mum does that to me because she sees that I deal better with it. Sure, I'm an adult and I can work fine on my own without instructions but things were just easier when it was like this, it helped me feel like a kid again y'know the opposite of what kids want, I went to my room and emptied the contents of my bag where I collected the clothes in it, hung my sword up and grabbed a new t-shirt, underwear and pair of shorts before heading to have a shower.

The hot water came out of the showerhead steaming up the room after a few minutes, closing my eyes I stepped into the water letting it run its course over my skin and hair, I should probably get it cut soon it was down to my shoulders or maybe I should just get it thinned? I'll give it a few weeks and decide if I want to keep the length, with a yawn I stretched my arms out. I cleaned my body with soap and shampooed my hair along with conditioning it, I got out after what was probably ten minutes, I dried myself off and put my clothes on before leaving the bathroom and heading out to the living room where Dad was missing from, Mum was sitting with a nearly two years old Akatsuki in her lap, my sister was giggling away happily as Mum made faces for her.

I came in and sat on the couch next to them, I leaned on Kaede and closed my eyes as I thought about where to start the tale, I decided to begin with the fact that our main enemy was an S-rank Missing-Nin of which she promptly said she wouldn't allow me to continue being a Shinobi if I continued the retelling by saying I fought him. Seeing as it wasn't a lie I told her I didn't, that Team 7 did originally, but Sensei and Kakashi fought him when he resurfaced, I detailed basically everything I could and even the stuff about my book, Mum knew about it already because I asked her for help when I was starting it at first.

"So you only have that small titbit that Naruto said about what happened then?" Mum asked when I finished.

"Yeah, Hinata won't say anything, Sasuke was avoiding me and Sensei would say he had something to do whenever I brought it up." I said sighing as I held Akatsuki in my arms.

"Well…" Mum said running her hand through Akatsuki's tuft of hair. "It might be the Rakurai family Kekkei Genkai at least from what information we have." She said thoughtfully.

"Wait we have a Kekkei Genkai?" I asked her surprised, after all that sort of seems like the kind of thing you mention to people.

"Yes we do, it acts kind of like the Eight inner Gates formation in a way, imagine it like this okay- we build up chakra really fast and because it builds up so much and recovers as quickly as it does we need to expel it as much as we can so it doesn't kill us from all the build-up, our chakra pool isn't all that big either so, anyway with expelling it comes a problem if we don't expel it soon enough when we mean to use chakra our bodies give in and our minds go blank as it tries to rid itself of as much chakra as it can." She finished.

"So how is it like the gates?" I asked.

"Because of all the chakra coursing through our system it can prove to give us a massive power boost unless you don't expel it enough then you're just a walking time bomb that can and will blow up from excessive chakra, like when you overfill a cup and it overflows except it blows up all your Tenketsu and kills you. Not very fun, that's how your grandfather and grandmother died." She said with a sad grim look.

After the delightful informing talk with Kaede she went to go and make dinner while I distracted Akatsuki, my sister crawled all over me bubbling with laughter as she pulled on my hair and mushed my face up, I smiled at her as she morphed my face around making her giggle more. I played with her like that until Mum called us for Dinner, I sat Akatsuki in a seat that was made so she wouldn't thrash around and spill her food, dinner was good as ever, I was glad to be back.

When I finished up I went to my room and mulled over the new information I had as well as remembered I needed to file a detailed report tomorrow that probably won't get there for a week, the idea of having a Kekkei Genkai was cool, hearing what it did was the most terrifying shit ever, something that needed me to expel chakra all the time was fucking insane! I mean I'm kinda glad that I'm now aware of it, it also explains Sasuke's attitude seeing as he wants to become powerful enough to kill Itachi then here I am and even Naruto as well showcasing our power being so much more than he has.

**888888**

"Hey Sensei? I want to start learning a Nature transformation if that's okay with you?" I asked moments after he showed up to our training grounds a few days after getting back.

Sasuke was shocked I think or at least his face looked the part "Now why would you want to do that? Your still only a fresh Genin." He said blowing cigarette smoke.

"Because apparently I'll explode if I don't abuse my Chakra, so I want a way to use bigger jutsu that will use more so I'm not at risk of what happened in Wave," I stated slightly annoyed that I had to piece it together with Mum and not be told what happened.

"Hold up a second! You'll explode? What do you mean you'll explode?" He asked with a growing concern on his face.

"Er… yeah, apparently I have a Kekkei Genkai that will basically surge my tenketsu with chakra until they explode and kill me." Hinata and Sasuke were definitely listening now.

"Why didn't I get told about this?" he said frowning seeing that exact same importance as I had.

"I didn't know until the other day when I was telling my Mum about what happened on the mission and how no one would tell me about after I blacked out Sensei," I said with a little venom, not entirely intentional but they were the ones that had avoided the whole thing whenever I tried to get information on it.

"Shit! I'm sorry Takezou! That's… if I had known I would have told you immediately." Sensei said apologetically.

"So what now? How does this Kekkei Genkai work?" Sasuke asked sounding somewhat intrigued.

"Essentially what I was told was that my chakra builds up faster than most anyone else, and recovers super-fast, because of that I have to expel it as much as I can otherwise what I said about the tenketsu will happen," I said.

"Back to my original question anyway, can we start on Nature transformations? Cause I do really need a way to waste chakra." I asked looking to Sensei waiting for his answer, this was a rather serious request to make sure I stayed alive and didn't end up like my grandparents.

"Yeah let's get on it now, oh and before I forget the chuunin exams are coming up so if you lot think you're ready, and you have to come to a complete agreement as a team, then I'll enter you." He said pulling out a few pieces of grey paper, he quickly explained them to be chakra paper, the ones that tell you what your chakra nature is.

"Wind…? And uh… I'm pretty sure I have an affinity for fire as well, I uh… I did this a few years ago so I already know." I said looking at the split paper, I already knew what mine was but I suppose I might have not meant to know yet, I knew a weird little tornado jutsu that I could barely use and had only ever applied once successfully, that being during our first training session with Sensei. Speaking of which Sasuke and I had never been able to recreate what we did that time with our jutsu.

"Lightning?" Sasuke said to his crinkled piece.

"Fire?" Hinata said looking at hers.

Sensei looked at us for a bit before saying "Sasuke you probably have a natural affinity for fire because you're an Uchiha so lightning being your main doesn't matter much, Takezou we'll start you on Wind it seems to be the one your stronger with and Hinata you'll probably just work on the Hyuuga techniques anyway so unless you really want to learn Jutsu it won't matter much." He seemingly thought about our next move while we took in the information.

Sensei spent the rest of the day running us through the basics of learning the new elements, seeing as we all had fire in common even if Hinata and I were doing other things we still sat in on Asuma teaching Sasuke so that we'd all have the base for it, Sensei said he'd hold off on lightning training until around the Chuunin exams when a lightning expert he knows will be free for it or until he found some Jutsu for Sasuke. Most of what I got from training was making wind chakra and pushing it into my sword, I spent most of the session doing that when I wasn't listening in on the fire lessons Sensei was giving. All I gotta say though is that its fucking hard, no wonder people don't start learning this till late genin or chuunin, I know I once got told I could have medic-nin level control if I put my mind to it but fuck me I wish I had it now it would really help out.

Though that's a funny thought really considering I remember Mum saying that I was born without chakra and that was one of the biggest issues during my birth, so the idea that had I trained myself properly I could have such good control is pretty funny. I kind of want to say I would be ironic but I don't think it would be.

As we were packing up as the sun began to set I caught Sasuke before he left.

"Hey, Sasuke!" I called to him just before he took off.

"Yeah what?" he asked turning towards me, with a vaguely annoyed look.

"U-don know how much I love you, so will you get on my ship, the friendship?" I couldn't help but crack a smile like an idiot.

I could see the realization set in "Oh piss off" he said a small smirk pulling at the edges of his lips as he shook his head and left.

"Damn it was worth a try guess he doesn't want on the S.S. Get Along." Asuma was laughing as he was walking up to me.

"Why do you sound like a Dad at twelve?" he said between the huffs of laughter.

"My plan for world domination begins with winning people over with puns," I stated sagely nodding to myself.

When I got home Uncle Toyo and Aunty Ume were there with their respective partners, I was trying to figure out why then realized '_Oh! Its Mum's birthday! Oh! Fuck! It's Mum's birthday!_' I had forgotten, ah fuck. Gods now that I think about it my birthday is soon as well then, Mum's birthday is on May 18th I can't believe I forgot, I'm not sure how old she is this year either. I headed to my room after saying hello and changed into clean clothes when I resurfaced from my room I had my notebook with me so I could jot down thoughts as they arrived, I sat next to Uncle Toyo who was still an active duty Jonin so I didn't get to see him all that often. If I remember correctly he was the one that gave me Jiraya's book.

Toyo and his wife were both Shinobi so I didn't seem them too often making it quite the reunion when they had time off, I wasn't sure if it was true but I think Aunty Rei was in ANBU, though that was never something I could confirm, I had a vague memory of her showing up dressed as one with the mask and all when I was younger. Toyo was lazy, I think that describes him best, he kinda acted like a cat in that way, he would whine for food then go and sleep for hours on end. Though that was probably a result of doing missions constantly.

* * *

**AN: Farewell and Happy Holidays.**


	9. Arc 3 - Chuunin are Dumb Part 1

**AN: This is the beginning of the next arc, though it's short and flows into the Exams, even then, the Chuunin Exams was a little weird for me way back when I was writing it because I had trouble trying to space it out. Actually I almost had it a few chapters earlier, but luckily I realized I needed to have more build up and whatnot.**

**Also if you're aware or maybe haven't realized it yet there are a lot of chapters already written out, I'm like 110k words into the story I've just been slowly putting them out to let me write what I can when I can and how I want.**

* * *

**Arc 3 Part 1**  
**Chapter Title: Learning Jutsu**

* * *

Fuck Asuma Sensei with a damned rusted metal pole, this man told me what he wanted me to do in order to help me learn how to use my Wind chakra and I spent three days straight throwing Kunai and knuckle dusters like his around pumped full of chakra. Do you understand how fucking mind-numbingly boring throwing knives and other such sharp objects for twelve hours straight for three days straight? Because it fucking was and I was starting to have second thoughts about this whole thing.

I love Sensei, but this is genuinely the most boring thing I've ever done, and I've actually watched paint dry let alone the time I sat in complete silence for six hours straight waiting for something. Yet still, with all those times I had the patience for that stuff, this was still hell for me. I realize that yes, I get much better control over my chakra nature and that I had asked for this, but that doesn't change my feelings on the matter at hand, at least it's not as bad what Kakashi is going to force Naruto to do when he eventually goes for it if that's how it plays out.

Hinata was just working on her family jutsu and whatnot while Sasuke had just been playing around with lightning and trying not to damage his hands from all of the sparks, which had happened a lot already over the last two days, he had been forced to go to the hospital to have them healed while Sensei got a stern talking to about unsupervised nature transformation training with Genin leading to severe damage. I had gotten a fair few of my own scars from my wind chakra getting out of hand, or well in hand, I guess. Nothing as bad as all the lightning-shaped scars streaking all over his hands and up part of his arms, it looked pretty metal and I had said as much but Sasuke just found it asinine because it was getting in the way of him becoming more powerful.

The Nurse had argued that him losing all the nerves and senses in his hands was far more important than getting powerful at the current moment, so he was forced to sit out for a few days until he was healed and could feel his fingers again. It was kind of funny to watch him sulking about the whole ordeal, though I had to sit out for a day as well because of all the mangled flesh that had been leftover in the wake of it basically being stripped from my hands, there were a few large spots of discoloured skin now because of it.

All the while Hinata and Sensei just sparred constantly and we watched from the sidelines, I kept making bets with Sasuke about how many hits Hinata could land before Sensei gave in and stopped for a cigarette break or how long it would take before Asuma would have to start defending seriously against our Princess with her being the fastest taijutsu user on our team.

I lost a few bets and Sasuke would always gloat about it because I said that I'd give him a favour that had me doing anything so long as it didn't cause myself or another bodily harm, he used it for challenging me to races or making me cook everyone food so it was fair, I got to do what I would have anyway and he got his precious Omusubi. For a guy like him he was surprisingly boring when it came to what he likes in food, like he could near anything that I could try to put together or have Mum help me with, but he chooses to have Onigiri.

Though he still had two unused favours at the moment and I was kind of just waiting for him to appear out of the woodwork and use it to get me to fight him without holding back, we had done that a few times beforehand though I had held back still just because after all that training with my Aunt I was quite fast, so I held back on that turf because he didn't have his Sharingan and I didn't want to move so fast he couldn't keep up, nor did I want to move so fast that I couldn't keep up with myself.

Which was something that had happened when I had gone back to fight against Ume a few times, she now fought at a constant level that was on par with if not more than what we fought at during my fight for the Nodachi, It was hell, but worth it for sure. I wouldn't want to spar her any other way either because it's a good way to train, against someone at a much higher level that is, seeing as you adapt to your situation it makes for good spars if she's upholding an insane level while I try to compete with her and just keep myself from collapsing of exhaustion.

Anyway, I wouldn't be able to do that with Sasuke and Hinata for my own safety really, it was just too dangerous with their moves and skill sets, especially with Hinata's gentle fist and thirty-two palms and Sasukes love for Ninja wire, shuriken and fire jutsu.

Aside from that though all things considered we were all coming along pretty well, I had begun on the jutsu that Sensei had shown me while Sasuke had started to work on some lightning pulse jutsu that Asuma had found that essentially tazed people and stunned them. He had tried it on me and I ended up convulsing on the ground for a few minutes until the effects faded, I was still a little jumpy afterward though.

Nothing like a little pain to remind you that you're alive I guess.

By the time that Sasuke and I had recovered and another few days went by we were becoming a little overly confident and I ended up with one of my jutsu going a little out of control and taking out a few trees accidentally.

**8888888**

By the time I could properly perform any of the wind jutsu I now had in my arsenal Sasuke had gone from zero to eleven really quickly with his lightning style training, so much so that he had decided he wanted to try to make his own jutsu. He was a real nutcase and Asuma said as much to him, saying that it would be far too dangerous at this point especially without much control or experience with his nature type.

So he was forced to settle with running around learning more Jutsu and trying to become as powerful and as effective with them as possible.

Other than that though I started getting a little lazy about the whole thing and all the scars stacking up on my hands or I suppose tearing away rather than stacking up, seeing as it had fucked me up pretty badly when one time my hands had damn near been blown right off- or so I was told by the hospital when I got taken there with mangled fingers as well as a grumpy sulking Sasuke who had been dragged their by Sensei which was the actual reason for us being there.

The Nurses we kept seeing were actually beginning to become annoyed with how much we had showed up with the space of a week and a couple of days, which was completely fair seeing as the Uchiha wasn't stopping anytime soon and I was just doing a shit job at learning to control it. Sure I could do a few jutsu but they were what was messing up my arms and hands.

Scars tell stories and all ours tell the boring ones about the time we hadn't figured out nature transformation yet, not a fun story like 'oh I got this one when I was charging in to fight a huge twelve-foot tall muscly beast of a man and he tore my arm from the socket.' Something like that anyhow.

Kind of makes me want to ask Dad about his arm again, he had told me some bits and pieces back when I asked him as a kid, but it was something he was evidently uncomfortable with discussing beyond how much he loved his younger sister that died on that mission. He would probably open up with me about it more now though, right? Now that I'm older and all that, surely? I mean the worse that he can say when I ask is no after all.

Suppose that's what I'll be doing when I get back from training today.

We didn't do all that much as the training bled on to midday and then early afternoon at which point Asuma dismissed us, Sasuke went to train on his own with his throwing skills, while Hinata went home and I headed for some shop in the market district that was kind of like a Bazaar. I was their to pick up stuff for dinner tonight and the rest of the week, sometimes Mum did it when she had a moment but a lot of the time she would just give me the list of what we needed in the morning before I set off, not that I cared though.

Doing a good portion of the weeks cooking left me with this duty, so I had no room to complain over it. I was just waiting for the days in which I could teach my sister how to cook and get her into it, then I could have something more to do with her outside of playing around in the yard or at the park with her. Plus cooking good food meant eating it after, so it was always a win to do it.

As I got into the house I was run into by Akatsuki who had been doing a lot of that recently since she had started waddling around and babbling or the occasional yelp and yell, nothing particularly out of place for a girl her age. I talk about her and Mum a lot, guess that's just my love for them bleeding through in everything I do. Just means I always have them on my mind, Dad is on my mind a lot too but just not as much seeing as his siblings have done to keep me away and introducing me to so much other stuff like Ume with the Kenjutsu and Samurai stuff.

She's just had such a huge impact on my person though with the training and all the time I spent in her dojo, I had once mentioned that it was common for her to knock me unconscious ending a spar with the wooden swords when she allowed for us to use them, but that wasn't wholeheartedly true in the fact that it was I who just collapsed from exhaustion. There wasn't much I could do about that though seeing at the height of it I was there for eight hours a day doing different forms and whatnot, I had wanted to learn how to use a spear at one point but she didn't have any and they were hard to come by, so I never got the chance.

It sucked too because the more varied my skills were the better for me it was really, that being because it meant I had a keen understanding of mindsets provided by the people using them if I ever got in a fight with someone that had one. While sure I can fight people with most weapons rather easily it didn't change the fact that I wanted to learn something like the Hōzōin Ryu, pretty sure it was a monk that made that spear style during the fifteen hundreds.

But alas I still got to learn a lot of other weapons though so it wasn't all bad, a lot of things still left for me to learn, basically.

**8888888**

I waited until after dinner and clean up to go and ask Dad about his arm, he was in the study/library room that Mum had made when I was younger, it had originally been a spare room for guests and whatnot, but my parents basically never ended up with anyone staying over so dad made it into a Study.

I knocked on the door as I entered, Dad looked up from the book he was running a hand down before marking something on a piece of paper next to the book, his desk was cluttered as ever with scrolls and documents. Now that I think about it, I have not a single clue as to what Dad actually does outside desk work- I suppose he probably did the same stuff as the Chuunin in the tower and whatnot. Though for all I know it's something else entirely.

A smile took over his face and his eyes got somewhat brighter "Takezou, did you want something?" He moved his hand away from what he was doing and sat up stretching slightly.

"Ah well… I kind of wanted to… you know…?" I made some weird gestures with my hands.

"No I don't know. You'll need to be more specific." He eyed me as I sat down across from him.

"Um… I guess I just wanted to know more about how you lost your arm and more about Aunty Katsumi?" I shifted in the seat as his gaze shifted from me to the stump where his right arm should have been.

"Hm…" he sighed before a resigned look overcame him. "I guess I should have expected you to want to know more, it always was something that you were drawn to when you were younger." His tone was rather light all things considered.

"Alright well let's start with my sister then, seeing as that leads into why I lost my arm and then I can give context to that." He cleared his throat and leaned back. "Katsumi…"

There was a long drawn out silence where neither of us said anything and Dad especially just stared off into the void.

"Right well my younger sister was a person who always valued your life over her own and that was something made worse when we were kids and during the war her team was killed and she ended up with a case of survivors guilt that just ate away at her." He paused resting his chin in his hand before continuing. "As you might be able to imagine from being with your Aunt for all her Samurai stuff, she loves her family til the end of time and would actually do anything for them, so seeing Katsumi like this messed with your Aunt a lot. Anyway, all that was on the back foot of most things we did, she was mostly outwardly happy and seemed to make an effort to make others have a good time."

"Anything else I should know about her?" I asked intrigued to hear more about her person.

"Not really no… actually now that I think about it, that friend of yours- the Uchiha boy, he has tendencies and actions that remind me of my younger sister, he might have a degree of survivors guilt." His eyes became half-lidded as he thought on what he just presented to me. "That's my guess anyway, and who could blame the boy if that is the case, he was the only one that survived a massacre, let alone the fact that his older brother did it and I remember that Kid being very strongly attached to his brother right from the Nine Tails being unleashed on the village down to all the times I was headed to the academy or tower and he was there watching over his brother from the roof or just out of sight."

That was something I had never even considered really… Sasuke probably does have it… Dad makes a really good point. I really wish that this was something I had seen at an earlier stage, the kid wants his brother dead sure but he also holds no value in is own life and couldn't care for others or at the least tries to keep from forming bonds so that he isn't put in a position for them to cause him pain again.

"Now onto my arm I suppose," Dad said looking at said stump and then back at me. "Right so when would this have been…? Hm probably during the last war, my best guess is 'round about two or three years before the war was coming to an end. Yeah so about at that point in time my team which consisted of myself as the acting Jonin, Katsumi and two of other Chuunin." He took a moment to drink from a glass of water that was on the desk.

"On this mission we were out fighting in the Land of Earth, I can't remember for what reason we were there, but we were. While on this mission we were ambushed by a squad of Iwa Shinobi one of which was rather profound in that they had this person from the Explosion Corps with them that I can't remember the name of for the life of me because I don't care to." He paused again for a brief second. "Anyway, what ended up happening is that the other two chuunin were caught in an explosion and killed while my sister and I were pretty beat up at the time. Katsumi decided to jump out and attack them managing to get all of the Shinobi but the Explosion release guy who in turn went into the blast a hole through her chest." He went quiet again.

"I know I asked Dad, but you don't have to continue if this is really hard for you?" I said watching the waterfall of emotions cascade across his face and especially in his eyes as he was made to recall the scene.

"No its fine, I'll continue." He said shaking his head.

"Right so because she was facing the opposite direction to the guy and I had just recovered, I leapt in the way of the attack and pushing her away and shielding her with my right side." Dads hand traced up the side of his face that had scars dragging up the right side that was very telling of what the blast had done to him. "What ended up happening though was that my sister was still hit and she had her head blasted and died once it hit the ground, I was covered in her grey matter…" Dad gagged slightly. "Though there was a side effect to the guy who did it, he ended up blasting his hand off and with what I had at that point still left in me I punched a hole through his chest with a Kunai from what the team that found us told me. I actually don't know what happened after I took the blast but rather it's just a guess from myself and the people that found me and patched me up." Dad said solemnly.

"So that joke one that you told Naruto forever ago could be accurate for all you know?" I asked changing the direction of the conversation.

"Uh Sure I guess… that's not really what I expected you to take from the story, but okay then." Dad looked to the window in the room that looked out into the yard where it showed a dark night sky.

"Oh it looks pretty late I'm going to go shower then sleep, goodnight Dad," I said abruptly exiting the room and giving myself a moment to think about the whole story and what he said. It was an interesting story.

**8888888**

"Hey, Sasuke?" I asked looking to where he was resting nearby since we had taken a break from training to eat.

"What?" He asked back disinterested eyes moving to look at me.

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?" the look he gave me was so worth asking him that dumb question from a show I barely remembered, he looked half confused and half annoyed that I'd wasted his time with another one of these one-line questions that have no answers or context. "You know not like metaphysically- but why are we sitting out in the open destroyed field when I got Sensei to put in the benches under the shade of the trees for this exact reason." I continued giving a little more reason for the comment beyond my enjoyment.

"Leave me alone." He stated as he stood up and walked away from me.

"See you tomorrow for missions then," I said after him, I got up and headed over to the aforementioned benches and sat on them.

This training ad kicked my ass pretty hard since we started it, I was glad we were slowing down to fill in our time with missions again, there was only so much more of this I could do before it started to affect my state of mind. Not that I did much else with my life aside from cooking and this whole Ninja deal, truly this is a job for fucking loonies. There is no doubt in my mind as to all the people that do this having far more than a few screws loose, I mean look at my team for example. Sasuke has all of his screws loose except for one or two that keep him tied down.

As it would turn out Sensei would come to us about the Chuunin Exams within the next few days.

* * *

**AN: Farewell.**


	10. Arc 3 - Chuunin are Dumb Part 2

**AN: So I had some time to sit down, read and fix up this chapter not only to find that it was god awful and nigh unreadable, but that it was also had an unfinished scene that I must've either forgotten about or ended up at the bottom of the old version of this my confusion of restoring chapters. Anyhow, hopefully, this reads much better and actually makes sense, unlike the other one.**

* * *

**Arc 3 part 2  
****Chapter Title: Tournament Arc**

* * *

We trained for a solid two months on our chakra natures, it was just before we got really into it that Asuma Sensei came to us and mentioned the Chuunin Exams in passing being about two weeks ago he had come to us again and said we were being nominated for them and as a team, we'd need to come to a conclusion about whether or not we joined them this time around. The exams were scheduled to happen a month from when he told us that, but right now we had something like two weeks. Normally they were meant to be every six months but sometimes they ran every six to eight months, so we had a lot of time to work on our teamwork and other skills, though our teamwork needed to get better, me and Sasuke had figured out some combination moves that involved his fire Jutsu and my wind, we just needed to work Hinata into them more because her style made it hard to fit in with how we fought.

Basically we ended up spending that first few weeks working on our teamwork and combination attacks, we managed to get two whole team ones down with several between two of us, my biggest concern at this point wasn't our skill and output but rather the possibility of Orochimaru and what that entailed for us in our time doing the exam. I mean the man can summon a fucking enormous snake, along with all those A-rank and up Jutsu he plays with like candy or the fact that he can resurrect the dead. That's probably the scarier part but, eh.

Today though I was sparring with Sasuke.

I brought my Nodachi down in a heavy strike that the Uchiha nimbly dodged backward in a flip, in seconds I sheathed the oversized sword and pushed forward rushing the hand seals for the Jutsu I'd been working on "Wind Style: Wind Bullet!" I said firing them off, Sasuke dodged again, in return he ran through his seemingly favourite set of hand seals "Fire Style: Great Fire Ball!" the enormous flame crashed into the ground releasing its insane heat in a huge burst. I barely dodged the scorching heat as I flung myself to the left of it, I ran through more hand seals "Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere Projectile!" the beams of air shot out and cut up the forest behind Sasuke, he slid to the side cartwheeling out of the Jutsu's spread and rushed me, he was in my face in moments, his fist would have impacted on my jaw and sent me flying but, I had experience with fast opponents. My head flicked backward out of his punch and I planted my foot in his abdomen pushing away.

I stumbled after tripping over a tree root the was poking out of the ground before I could move again Sasuke had recovered and was over me with a kunai at my throat.

"I give," I said raising my hands in defeat.

"Heh," he grinned lending his hand and pulling me up.

"Good match you two! You're both improving a lot!" Sensei said coming over to us, he threw both of us a bottle of water.

"Good one Sasuke, I didn't think your fireballs had gotten that big I barely dodged it! Though I think you should try to get faster like maybe that Zabuza guys apprentice, seeing as he was like insanely fast, it might be a good goal for where you want to get." I complimented and suggested dusting myself off.

"Yeah well I hadn't realized how far you've come with the wind Jutsu' I still thought you couldn't do them properly. I could look into weights maybe…" He replied, though the last part for himself I think.

"Y-you b-both did great!" Hinata said giving us a smile.

"Thanks, Hinata," I bumped Sasuke's shoulder trying to get him to thank her.

"Hn" was what we got.

"I'm really impressed with all of your progress I feel confident in your abilities going into the Exams," Asuma said with a happy look.

"There's something I want to do with you all today though, while you're all getting really good probably better than I was at your age, I'm going to need you all to brush up on your medical knowledge and just make sure you can treat wounds properly so you can make this exam easier on yourselves," Sensei said throwing medical textbooks at us, they looked familiar to me. He also gave us a med pack filled with all the essentials.

"I've read this," I said out loud at the realization after flicking through the first few pages.

"You have?" Sasuke asked with an incredulous look.

"Yeah, I did, it's been a long time though. I read it because my mother said if I wanted to become a ninja I needed to know how to patch people up when there wasn't a medic-nin on hand." Man, she really thought ahead for this, more than me anyway.

"Well, I guess you'll just be doing revisions then" Sensei replied with a thoughtful look.

As such we spent the rest of the next couple hours in our own little book club reading, the refresh of information was nice though I had forgotten a decent chunk of it, I think Hinata didn't need to read it anyway because I was sure the Hyuuga would know the Human body inside out because of their fighting style and all. She seemed enthused to read it anyway, maybe the Hyuuga forbid her from reading this sort of stuff because it was improper? Sounds dumb. I went on to add notes to a new notebook I had gotten after I filled in the last one, I decided to write some of this one in English so I could keep some details to myself like the Massacre I wanted to write about what I remembered around it, or basically, all the messed up stuff Danzo incited throughout the show, I don't remember too much and I hadn't gotten any memory barrages recently so I was stuck for what I could remember.

I remembered enough to know how Shisui got his Mangekyou and the reason behind why the poor kid killed himself, it made me sad to think about it, I guess it really resonated with me or something like that since I could remember it after thirteen years or so. Thinking about it made me look at Sasuke for a bit just sort of staring off into the distance just past him, a glum look washed over my face the more I thought about it, I wanted to meet Itachi – I think anyway. He seemed interesting enough.

"So, Takezou how have you been keeping up your Kenjutsu since becoming a Genin?" Aunty Ume asked as she played with her daughter and my sister, I after training I had come home to my mother telling me to watch my sister while she was with my Aunt and niece.

"I've been doing alright probably not as much as I should be, but I've been focusing on Jutsu and enhancing my sword with wind chakra lately," I said as I idly noted down some ideas for things in my notebook.

"How about when you do the Chuunin Exams since I know they're coming up, if you make it to the one on one round I'll take you under my wing exclusively for the month and give you the rest of the training you'll need at your level? whilst you can mostly keep up with me when I'm using something like half or maybe a quarter of my full strength, it would probably be better for you to- you know? training at a higher level in case your forced against some person that's way above your pay grade that hasn't been promoted somehow." She motioned her hand around making Irisu giggle.

"That… Sounds awesome, yeah I'd love that!" I was looking forward to that then, I enjoyed my time with Ume, despite everything she was fun to spar and talk with.

"I was gonna drag you off to it if you said no anyway, but it's easy to have you cooperate," She said with a sly look.

I'd say it was concerning that she'd just kidnap me if I'd said no but, Ume had been like this since the moment I met her, she often did the same thing while I was at the Academy. I watched as my niece and sister fumbled around one another while Aunty acted as their jungle gym, she laughed away as the two tried their hardest to conquer the mountain that was her torso. I watched them like this for ten or so minutes before Dad came into the living room and got my attention before motioning for me to follow him.

I followed him down the hall into his study that was sort of a library with a desk and two chairs in it, the shelves of books were mostly his and Mums except for an entire case that had all the novels and whatnot that I had read over the years. I sat down in the chair opposite Dad as he sat at the desk after closing the door, he pulled out a book and started jotting something down for a moment before finally looking to me and lowering his pencil.

"Alright Takezou, I wanted to discuss something pretty important with you." He said turning the book in front of him around, so I could see it.

"Whoa… are those Jutsu?!" it was pages of Jutsu and all sorts of techniques there were sketches and diagrams.

"It's a comprehensive list of all the Jutsu and techniques I thought I'd pass onto you with the Exams coming up, seeing as I can't show you much of this in person I thought it would be best to make this book of it, normally there's sort of an unsaid rule among Shinobi about not writing things down such as this, but I honestly couldn't care about that." He said scratching the five o'clock shadow on his face. "Well, that and it's pretty stupid if you ask me."

"T-thanks Dad! Holy crap this is awesome!" I flicked through a couple of pages, he even had an index, there only seemed to be about twenty Jutsu though I'd have thought there'd be more.

"Well, with my older sister having stolen you away to become her little Samurai minion, while my younger brother got you into wanting to be a ninja and some of your reading choices it didn't exactly leave me with much to give you, so I thought this would suffice." H seemed quite pleased with my reaction to it all.

"I imagine you want something from me though right?" I looked at him.

"You got me, I want to be there when you're trying anything in it, so I can help but also because there's some stuff that needs supervision." He started spinning a pencil in his fingers.

We spent the next couple hours poring through the book as he started giving me an idea of a lot of the stuff he wanted to do with me first and how he'd like to build into others, we stopped for a short break when Mum called us for dinner, dinner was pretty eventful because Akatsuki started saying some of her first words though she had most favoured this phrase over others, she was trying to get Mum's attention and started waving her hands saying "Kaa Kaa!" Mum was nearly in tears with how happy she was, Dad had a huge proud smile on his face.

Dad and I cleaned up after dinner leaving Mum to try to get some more words out of Akatsuki, when we were done cleaning up we headed back to the study and continued going over the book deciding what to do. When we were probably about halfway through the book and had spent the last four hours not counting dinner going through it I decided to broach the topic of my book I was writing with Dad because with his book he'd made me I wanted to ask something.

"Dad?" he paused writing looking at me "I wanted to ask you if I'd be able to put some of this stuff into a book? I've been putting together for the last six or so months..." I asked.

"Is this the one you got your Mother to help you with not too long ago?" he asked eyebrows raised.

"Yeah it is, I want to write a… kind of like a book on and around the philosophies of Kenjutsu styles and some Shinobi stuff along with like my own thoughts on a couple of topics." I felt a little uncomfortable because it was hard to ask for opinions on things that meant a lot to you.

"I can help you with it if you want, if it means I can get an insight into that head of yours I'd really like to see it, I'm more than willing to allow you to do that then." He said simply.

**88888**

_"Using a simple method to accomplish something impressive, far outshines using a complex method to achieve the same thing."_ I quoted aloud in English as I watched the sky above me from where I sat in a tree, the quote was one of a king speaking to his retainer, a retainer that believed he was useless and unworthy of his great king.

Below me Sensei was smoking while he helped Hinata by sparing with her, she had already beaten me, and Sasuke was off skulking around after being hit by her thirty-two-palm technique. I had stopped accidentally spouting off quotes and such in English a year or so ago and often I found myself missing my mother language, despite all its imperfections and annoying qualities, I once went through a period in my life where I often cursed the people of the past for butchering Greek and Latin as they did to create our mongrel of a communication tool, but I passed that and see it for what it is, I still don't entirely love it though I do appreciate it more than I once did.

Hinata had improved insanely since our time at the academy, she could probably give Sensei the biggest run for his money with how fast she'd become though Sasuke and I picked up wearing weights on our legs and I was wearing weights on my arms as well for my sword, though with a week until certain death and or the Exams we probably would barely get to work them in. When Sensei and Hinata finished their spar, I dropped from the tree I was in and walked over to them.

"Man, just watching you fight makes me want to train Hinata, you've improved so much it's insane." I complimented, I was in the midst of my plan to make her more confident in herself with compliments and it seemed to be working she was stuttering less.

"T-thank you!" she got out with a smile.

"Finished talking to yourself in the tree then Takezou?" Sensei asked.

I froze up for a moment "Ah… I- I have no clue what you're talking about." Huh, right he was a Jonin wasn't he? though it's not like I was trying to hide what I was saying.

"I'm sure you don't," he said letting it go "Go get Sasuke for me Takezou," Sensei stated.

It didn't take me too long to find him he was in the Uchiha district at a lake that had a pier on it, he was doing his great fireball jutsu off of it.

_"Father! Father! Come on I want to show you my Jutsu!" the six-year-old Sasuke ran up to the edge of the pier with a huge smile as Fugaku came up behind him with his stern look and watched Sasuke "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" he announced letting the large ball of orange and red, he looked back to his father with a hopeful look only for his father to turn away saying "Not as good as Itachi's" under his breath. the distraught look Sasuke wore showed he heard the words of his father._

I collapsed with a sharp gasped breath as the memory burned itself into my retinas, I clutched my forehead as I hit the ground "_**FUCK!**_" I yelled in English, the memory was so strong, it had been so long since one of these, was this how it felt before? "AGH!" a yelled as the pain continued. I think Sasuke was standing over me because there was suddenly a shadow looming over me with uncertainty. I'm not sure how much time passed but at some point, I'm sure I blacked out or went unconscious because when I woke up I was in a vaguely familiar scene, there were white clean walls, a large window that opened out to a blue sky with the tops of trees only just in the view, and it smelled aseptic and slightly of flowers.

Bleary-eyed I looked to where I felt a weight on me and seemingly another familiar sight was there, Mum was sitting in a chair next to the bed with her head resting on it as she slept, no one else was in the room. I waited a few minutes for someone to come in on their own volition and when no one did I nudged Mum.

"Wake up Mum, c'mon get up please?" I said gently shaking her shoulder until she stirred.

"Takezou!" she nearly yelled pulling me tight into her embrace.

"Morning," I said sleepily.

"Don't scare us like that again!" there were tears forming in her eyes.

"What happened?" I asked as she leaned back into her seat, letting me go.

"Well your teammates turned up on our doorstep looking concerned and started saying me and your Father need to head to the hospital immediately because it was an emergency and you were here," She said wiping her eyes.

"Oh…" That didn't really clear it up all that well.

She continued, "When we got here your gloomy pale friend said he was training in the Uchiha compound when he suddenly heard someone screaming in pain and when he arrived there you were on the ground clutching your head…" she trailed off.

"I don't remember any of that, the last thing I remember was leaving to look for Sasuke after Sensei asked me to look for him," I said with my brow furrowed as I tried to remember more.

Kaede sat with me a while longer before Sensei and a Medic-Nin came in, they both seemed glad I was awake, though I imagine it was so they could question me. Before they could do much of anything though Sasuke came into the room Hinata in tow looking embarrassed by how Sasuke barged in on the scene. He had the right in a manner of speaking to be as pushy as he was if what Mum said was the truth and I did that in front of him. He made a 'Tch' as he saw me before something seemed to click in his head and he left.

My doctor - Dr. Takahasho and his assistant Nurse - Miss Kokoro proceded to talk to me about the instance and ask if anything similar had happened beforehand, eventually, it came down to them discussing my neural activity while I was passed out, there were a few things I didn't quite get but essentially my the part of my brains that dealt with memories as well as the part that dealt with dreams were hyperactive while I was out. It left us all with more questions than answers, but it wasn't like I could tell them what I actually saw either, I had just said I saw some memories from when I was a kid.

**8888888**

I know the exams are coming up and that's what we're training for but, honestly, I'm against them to the point where I think despite everything Sasuke is beginning to hate me for it, sure we're a strong team with decent teamwork. Some half-assed chemistry that functions enough that none of us has any real ill will towards one another, but I don't want to go through with this event that will change our lives, it has things that are to happen that I doubt can be stopped, that will put us the closest to death we'll ever get or just straight up kill one of us. Imagine that though… another chance at death? I'd rather not put myself in that position when I can avoid it.

Actually I overheard a few of the other teams talking about them getting recommended for the exams as well, while sure it's something to feel proud about, it's also something that no one should rush right into and just assume it'll be another D-rank or something stupid like that. Because as it would turn out rushing into things that are known for having people die in them is tantamount to suicide without forethought as for what to consider is likely to happen.

The world of Shinobi is that of beasts pretending to human, after all, so why these kids thought nothing of… well… a battle-royale of all things, not that I remember that movie all that well obviously. Anyway, I'm not wrong, the whole exam is some kind of tournament more so than an exam, we aren't going to pass school with flying colours and get an endorsement or scholarship when we get to the end and have a good enough score. This is a tournament to kill all other participants or take them out and claim our prize if we make it that far if we don't well then I guess we'll just have to train up for the next one and it's that about this whole thing that makes it a tournament.

I'm not about to put my life on the line to satisfy the thirst of this village while they try their damnedest to show off and gloat about all their candidates for this damn thing, like what did they get for parading us around to the other villages other than telling them who to kill when the left the village first? like just think about that. "Oh look the last Uchiha and the last Uzumaki who also happens to be the Junchuriki are shit at what they do and easy targets!" let alone the fact that basically all of the biggest clans in the Leaf have their heirs in this generation.

It's like they're really trying to get this generation killed faster instead of training them up for the war that anyone with a brain could see coming from a mile away, it's not like the villages are hiding their prejudices and lingering resentment from the other wars.

Too bad for me I give in easily under the right amount of pressure.

* * *

**AN: Troublesome stuff that, I'm definitely glad I came back and saw how atrocious this chapter was and fixed it, it was so beyond awful. I almost feel like posting the next chapter to make up for such a blunder really, cause, like... yeah. it was bad. Though the chapter seems to read better now, at least to me.**


	11. Arc 3 - Chuunin are Dumb Part 3

**AN:**

* * *

**Arc 3 part 3**  
**Chapter Title: Deceased and Flowering**

* * *

"Room 301, 301…" I said aloud as we walked into the building the Chuunin Exams first stage was held, I had ended up giving into Sasuke's pressure and decided that I'd put my lot in with them because I refused to sit idly by and potentially watch the murder of my team, and so here we were walking towards stage one.

there was a ruckus up ahead of students getting stuck by Chuunin, I think? That was how this went wasn't it?

"Hey come on let us in! we deserve to be here just as much as anyone else!" a girl yelled amongst the waves of voices all fighting to be heard and overpower the others.

"Tch what a crappy excuse for a Genjutsu, get out the way, we're here to win," Sasuke said cockily walking past the two standing in front of the door bumping into them, with Hinata and I in tow.

We walked on, as we tried to leave one of them went to kick Sasuke but I moved in the way blocking it, giving him an annoyed looked when Sasuke tried to fight back before we went onward, while Sasuke seemed bothered that I had kept him from a possible chance to show people up, to the next floor letting all the idiots pile up at the wrong door. I think some guy in green called after us but we decidedly continued ignoring him. As we were about to take the stairs up to the right floor, a person in green suddenly appeared in front of us.

"So you're the one of the great Uchiha I hear so much about!" he declared loudly making me wince.

"Yeah, what of it loser?" Sasuke glared at him taking in the awful clothing choice.

"I want to fight you right now! To prove that I'm better unless the Uchi-" before he could finish I thusly grabbed my teammate's hands and pushed on past the guy ignoring him as he followed us yelling something that I didn't catch.

He finally stopped when his team dragged him off when we finally entered room 301 like we were supposed to, man I just really didn't want to deal with that guy not right now anyway, there was a sound from behind us as the door opened into a room full of other Genin. Someone jumped on Sasuke nearly making him topple the moment we entered.

"Sasuke!" the Harpy sounded her song.

"Hey Shikamaru, Chouji, you guys mind collecting her?" I said as the two walked over getting a knowing smile and nod from the Deer boy.

"Sure," Shikamaru said lazily "Ino get off the guy, it's bad enough that you hound him like this normally." He said with his shoulders slouching.

"I haven't se-" before she could finish a loud blonde burst through the door cutting her off and making her move away as the door nearly slammed into her.

"Man! That was close, we were almost late!" Naruto yelled unaware of his surroundings and looked all over the room for something in particular.

"Yeah because of you!" the Sheep said back punching Naruto in the head, I frowned in her direction holding a bit of glare at her abusing the boy, I may not have liked Naruto that much, but I didn't want him to get hurt or anything.

"Hey, long time no see guys! Haven't seen you since the Wave mission!" Kiba said diverting attention.

"Yeah… man what's it been three or four months?" I couldn't quite remember, we got it a month or so after becoming Genin, I had talked to Kiba a little while we were there so I had gotten to know him enough that we were comfortable around one another.

"Something like that, hey so where's Shino and his team? Then we'd have a regular old reunion." Kiba asked and Akamaru barked in agreement. I couldn't help but mentally disagree considering my disinterest with partaking in hanging out with much of anyone until teams formed, it would be a reunion for them and not me, but maybe that's who he was talking about?

"I was here from the beginning, why didn't you notice me? Lack of perception." Shino stated weirdly as his teammates came over and got him to go to their seats. We chatted for a few minutes before a guy with grey hair and round glasses who was taller than all of us came over, there was something about the guy that set off all sorts of mental flags to me but I couldn't place it not until he spoke.

"Hey, could you guys be quieter? Oh! You must be the rooki-" he was cut off as I collapsed to my knees clutching my head as I let a short-pained scream though it was muted.

_"I have now surpassed even Lord Orochimaru! I've perfected the Edo Tensei!" "These are Ninja Info cards, let me share with you." The young boy held onto the only thing keeping him tethered to his life and holding his normalcy, the rounded glasses of Nono Yakushi – his mother, the Nun at the Orphanage._

"What the Hell is wrong with him?!" I heard the spy say as Sasuke and Hinata tried to help me.

"Hey piss off, would you! We're trying to help him" I heard Sasuke say as the pain finally calmed.

"_gods I fucking hate that!_" I spat in English as I raised my head and stood. "Let's go take our seats now, I'm fine." I brushed the others off.

As we went and sat down there was a yell from the back of the class, "I'M NOT GONNA LOSE TO ANY OF _**YOU!**_ BECAUSE I'M _NARUTO UZUMAKI!_ YOU HEAR THAT!?" gods I hated loud people.

A faint tension built up among all the other Genin seemingly accepting Naruto's challenge, not too long after a team attacked Kabuto though he dodged their attacks, suddenly a tall guy with a bandana on and a trench coat showed up with if I could remember looked like possibly the entirety of Konoha's T&I. The trench coat dude started talking and scaring some people, but I stopped listening, I was focusing on wasting chakra, I didn't want to explode in the first section of this thing. He eventually started writing on the chalkboard at the front of the room with what I assumed were the rules. I didn't realize it at first but Sasuke and Hinata were seated several people away from me. Papers got handed around and then it was announced we should begin.

'_This doesn't seem too difficult_' I thought as I skimmed through the questions '_Oh! Fuck! Those sick fuckers! My one weakness! Explaining how I got a maths answer! This is bullshit! Fuck these people! I'll just draw on the back of the sheet then!_' I flipped the page and began drawing away. I decided it would do me well to sing songs in my head to keep me sane for this short test.

Gods I missed my music from my old life, I missed it so much. this would go by much faster if I had it.

Though I suppose I loved metal music and cooking, that reminded me of something that I heard someone say about themselves doing the same things while in school. '_When I was in school I was into cooking and metal, I was an angry man, but I had to eat._' something to live by really.

**888888888**

"Alright, that's enough! Times up! You lot of shit stacks ready for the Tenth question?!" The Trench coat guy said.

Man, I probably should've been paying attention earlier, that and actually done the exam, it might have helped, I'm sure the other two noticed I wasn't even doing it. I flipped the page back around to the answers and started doodling in the answer boxes as the T&I team made people shit themselves going on about accepting or rejecting the question, everyone got really loud after that, I hope Sasuke and Hinata figure this trick out. I mean I know I had the cheat of having read this forever ago but still, I feel like you should be smart enough not to take everything at face value.

Teams were falling out left and right, there had to be some Chuunin hiding among those to psych people outright? Like that would make the most sense, I looked around and noticed Naruto sitting next to Hinata freaking out, Sakura was as well. Kiba was handling himself and team 8 looked fine. Naruto started yelling about being the Hokage to hype himself by the sounds of it, I went back to drawing, the proctor had a laugh at what the blonde was shouting. Until he suddenly said-

"You lot just passed the first Exam!" A smirk crossed his face.

Another explosive outburst of people going off at Ibiki, he explained it to those of the uninitiated before he could finish though a Woman exploded through the wall into the class, she insulted us and thusly told everyone to get outside and follow her, man was I glad I brought my sword and pack, if we were going right into this then I made a good decision. I didn't bring my cooking stuff though because it was loud, and Sensei said if he found out I got us attacked because people could smell or hear it he'd ring me out. Whilst the idea was funny I didn't want to be the death of us, I brought some ANBU style bracers and leg armour with my pay from the Wave mission though, despite the fact that we were only there for the second half of the mission we each got the A-rank sized paycheck and let me tell you that is possibly the most money I've ever had, they gave us each twenty-five thousand Ryo. That was nuts.

Anko started explaining the Forest of Death portion to us, I'll be honest I was scared shitless at this point, not only was the trouser snake Sannin here to cradle rob Sasuke but, this place had enormous spiders and shit, I have a massive arachnophobia though at some point it extended to insects in general until in my defense bugs are god awful and look disgusting. At least spiders have a use in that they kill flies and stuff off.

When I took my attention off the Forest for a moment, I heard Naruto antagonizing the Jonin _'Oh! Eww, what the fuck! That chicks' tongue is long as fuck! Wait my god is that Orochimaru?!'_ This is sketch as hell, I don't think I want to be here anymore. Ugh Hinata and Sasuke better understand how much I love them to be staying here.

We straight up had to sign consent forms, what the fuck, Heaven and Earth Scrolls – cool. "One final piece of advice! Stay Alive!" the purple-haired woman spoke, she was pretty good looking, I mean she was nuts but decent looking. Ah, hormones, how I know this will be hell to go through again.

We got a Heaven scroll, I handed it to Hinata and told her to hide it in her hoodie, we took off into the dank, moist forest. We were running for maybe an hour- or well really it could have been four hours, but I couldn't tell because of how we were going about travel- before some team from Ame turned up. We stopped in the middle of an opening on the forest floor so that they would have nowhere to hide, that and it would make it easy to escape with smoke bombs and the Sub jutsu.

"Hand us your scroll!" One of them demanded holding a hand out to collect.

I rolled my eyes and threw shuriken at him, either he was really fucking stupid or it was a clone because he froze up… oh, a water clone, that's cool, I guess. As the clone burst, we took up our stances and readied ourselves for their assault, after a few minutes of waiting a barrage of water bullets hailed us from above, they were cut short by Sasuke's phoenix flower jutsu. The Ame-Nin dropped down to the ground with us and before one of them could act I swung my Nodachi full of chakra down on him. I fell back and began to vomit, that was the most viscera thing I'd ever done and seen, the kids' body was split in two from his right shoulder down across his torso to his hip. I was kicked in the face while I let the weight of my actions sink in by his teammate who was screaming a name, as my head impacted the dirt I let a pained noise, I saw Sasuke and Hinata take care of the other two in less gruesome ways, as I stood slowly I wiped my mouth and spat a few times trying to get rid of the taste. Sasuke threw me a bottle from one of the Ame-nin and I spent a minute washing the taste out of my mouth.

"I didn't think I'd ever see someone throw up on their opponent after cutting them in half," Sasuke said sounding almost a little impressed yet still entirely disgusted.

"Yeah well I don't think I ever expected to do that- hey your eyes are red? I thought you didn't have your Sharingan?" I replied and asked.

"I activated it in Wave" He replied shortly not expanding upon the issue. "Hey, these guys had an Earth scroll we can head to the tower."

We traveled for another couple of hours before suddenly a wave of the most gut-wrenching, horror inducing killer intent washed over the area as an enormous snake came crashing through the forest bringing down quite a few trees.

A woman was standing on top of it and did a huge wind jutsu that crashed through the tree we were next to – we were about to climb it so it was quickly abandoned, the woman laughed and spoke in a creepy as fuck voice.

"My dear Sasuke~ you were able to dodge that? This will be quite promising!" they announced before launching towards the Uchiha mouth open.

**88888888**

My mind had gone blank and I forgot where I was for a while, the way the world moved was muted and subdued along with time at a near standstill grazing along as I watched an enormous snake barrel towards us taking out trees and almost taking us out.

This couldn't be real right?

could it?

Was that possible?

Should I have prepared for this?

Why was it we were to be bound to such a hellish fate.

Were we going to die here? I don't want to die. That- that's what terrifies me the most…

_Was this Fates answer to my question or plea for her to give us a fair and just life? Is asking anything of a power the wrong thing to do? Or was this the just and fair outcome I had asked for? Will there be more times like this in my life? How much longer will we hang in free fall watching this beast fly towards us time frozen?_

The world turned and spun putting us into perspective, I turned watching in horror as Hinata's small form slammed so hard into a tree branch that it destroyed it on impact, the part that hurt the most to see was the fact that the branch had to be thirty-odd centimeters thick, it had made a sickening _crack_ and _crunch_ while her gasped scream filled with pain blurted out. Sasuke was unconscious as his body crumpled under the pressure of the snake as my hand came out pulling him from it and the other reached for Hinata.

I tucked the two of them into my chest wrapping my arms around them as blood sprayed from my mouth when time resumed and I lost consciousness for a moment again.

**8888888**

"_What the FUCK is wrong with this snake freak?!_" I screamed in English as an unconscious Sasuke was slumped over my shoulder dead to the world, Hinata was guiding us away with Orochimaru chasing us, or at the least, he was somewhere nearby playing around like he was actually having a hard time keeping up, though that was probably part of his plan to fuck with Sasuke.

"_HAHAA! Run little Genin~_ try your damned best to keep yourselves from me all you want!" a huge jutsu barrelled through the area and slammed Hinata and I into the tree we were jumping to from the branch we were on, there was a pained noise from both of us as I watched blood spray out from somewhere before the twenty-odd foot drop onto the dirt below.

I was winded, that was the first thing that I realized as I tried to drag myself off the ground and grab Sasukes body was covered with a few bruises and lacerations, there was blood as well but I wasn't sure if it was even his, Hinata made a noise nearby and I looked towards her to see cradling a bloodied hand and arm that definitely weren't facing the right direction, her entire shirt was soaked in blood but I couldn't see where it was coming from. I started to freak out as I crawled over to her dragging Sasuke's corpse, her breath was ragged and strained as her head wavered, I can't imagine the pain she was in right now with her arm like this.

"_Fuck!_" I said under my breath in English. Her hand was mangled while I'm pretty sure the arm was snapped in at least three places, I started pulling things out of my pack to use as a splint, I couldn't find a splint itself, but I had disinfectant with bandages as well as a salve, and I noticed a few sticks and large branches that could serve as it. I quickly got to work making sure Hinata was fine, I checked her for a concussion but, that's when I heard another howled laugh from the snake. I shivered slightly where I was at the sound of the trouser snake. I helped her open her hoodie and took it off her to use as a sling for her arm, her chest was bruised from what I could tell as I cleaned and wrapped her up the best I could with the short few minutes we had.

I dragged Hinata up as she whimpered from the pain, we started moving again with her being supported under my arm and Sasuke being dragged by his clothing, I had something I wanted to try – I started exerting all the chakra I could produce and began charging my body with it as I pulled Sasuke under my arm and took Hinata's good hand holding it tight linking our arms, I took off at a speed I'd never managed before – I flung us a few hundred or more meters in the first leap, I think Orochimaru stopped following us because he wasn't around or at least I couldn't make his presence out anywhere. When I finally collapsed into the dirt Hinata and I made an effort to try to set up a camp in a hollow tree, I took first watch since I was only vaguely Chakra exhausted and she had to deal with her hand and arm.

Nothing happened on my watch thankfully though I was sure it felt like somebody was watching me, Hinata wasn't bleeding when I turned it over to her so it was a start, we decided to do half an hour to an hour-long shifts after she demanded she take a shift because of how pale and awful looking I was at that point. When I was woken up it wasn't Hinata rousing me but rather a loud thundering sound and a scream of pain, I flung myself out of the tree to see Hinata trying to fend off three Oto-nin with one hand, her Byakugan was flaring and a thick visible coat of chakra on her good hand, all the while she had dried blood covering her as well as new dripping off her.

I don't think they were expecting me because the one that had just hit Hinata in the leg from what I could tell, had a very surprised look when my sword tore his arm from the socket in a flip and burst of chakra as my body was slung wildly then coming to a stop, the Oto-nin's teammates were wide-eyed as well, I stood with my already crimson haori covered in blood flowing behind me as I breathed heavily with my sword resting on my shoulder, I felt like I was going to collapse from all the chakra I'd used even if I recovered it fast that didn't mean it wasn't still putting a strain on me to keep going. A kunai hit me in the thigh bringing me to my knee before a sound rustled behind me.

For a moment that I got to glance at the people I realized that I didn't know these three, I was pretty sure they weren't the ones that attacked team 7 from what I remembered. These must've been another group that Orochi had sent as filler.

There was a shift behind us and Sasuke's black mop flew past us and turned the Oto-nin to mincemeat before us, he looked like he was feeling blissful, the creep of the black tattoos provided by the curse mark that was making a pulsating aura of dark chakra around him served to boast how powerful he looked like he was feeling.

"Hey, Sasuke what the heck is that crap creeping down your arm from your shoulder?!" I said alarmed also making him aware of his situation while trying to pour water over the kunai wound and bandage it.

He looked at his shoulder red eyes flaring with three tomoe in each "I feel _**powerful!**_" he said stepping towards the bodies admiring his handiwork, only to stomp the necks of the two he had just killed. Their necks snapped with an audible _crack_ and _squelch_ that was nothing less than disgusting as the life left their eyes, bodies becoming completely limp. He walked over to the one I had disarmed that was trying to crawl away and punched a hole through his chest with his newfound power.

"Leaf Whirlwind!" a voice shouted as a boy in green with orange leg warmers appeared in front of us not giving us a moment to even breathe before starting something, it took me a second to realize who it was – "I wish to challenge you Uchiha!" Lee announced pointing at the scowling boy. Nothing in this world could make our situation worse at this point unless the trouser snake resurfaced to try cradle rob Sasuke again.

I sighed as I moved from leaning on the scabbard of my Nodachi and walked forward ignoring the screaming my body was doing that had begun to haze my vision and make my strength wain, I was not about to deal with this fucking shit, I just didn't want to deal with this not while we were still recovering from Orochimaru. Hinata was ready to collapse by the looks of it as well. We just needed to get medical attention and get Sasuke to someone who could seal his curse mark.

"Yeah well-" I smashed my scabbard into Sasuke's neck knocking him unconscious letting the curse mark fade as his body hit the dirt with a _thump_.

Lee looked shocked and confused, not helped and emphasized by the fact that he caught sight of all the blood, our injuries, and the corpses. "Bowl cut if you need a scroll get it off them would you- we really can't be assed dealing with this shit, we just ran away from a Sannin riding a snake so I'm pretty close to just saying fuck it at this point and leaving the exam!" I pointed the Nodachi at the bodies then at him, I was far beyond giving a shit about a flak jacket I could buy at a Shinobi supply store.

I watched as he looked to me for a few minutes trying to discern something from my cold eyes, he decided after taking one last look at Sasuke and me that it wasn't worth it, then he walked over to the corpses and picked up a scroll finding that he must've already had it, then he left.

As Lee was taking off another person screeched as they entered the area "Hey what the hell did you attack _Sasuke-kun_ for?!" the Hag crooned as though its existence was wanted or cared for, as though it were warranted an audience with our team, letting the dark thoughts fester as I turned to the girl playing ninja, the figurehead of a doll that stood with brittle confidence and morose soul of a child. Had she been so utterly borderline incompetent as to not want to save her poor Sasuke? Or had she just enjoyed the show and sat there watching and waiting for her moment to collect?

With the fiercest look I could possibly muster and all the anger I held at this point on display my head snapped to where she had landed "I swear upon all those that are named gods right here and now if you so much as _speak_ 'Sasuke-kun!' in my vicinity before the exam is over _**I will Fucking butcher you!**__I promise you **Girl **_that _no one_ will miss _**you!**_" I snarled absolutely fed up with this crap, I just felt so angry and annoyed at all this shit we were dealing with, one after another out of the damned woodwork. Why the fuck did they all have to come to us? What the fuck was so damned important about us? Was it the Uchiha? Or maybe it's fate?!

Right after the pink one froze up with a terrified look that told me of her situation and mindset, she was frightened like a child robbed of their confidence when the adults couldn't protect her, Naruto and Kiba appeared "Hey! Hey Takezou! You can't talk to her like that!" the blonde said unfazed by my glare and current stance standing over my teammates and the bodies. Though he held the appearance of someone who had been slammed through a few trees and so did Kiba, all the while Sakura seemed as though she hadn't even entered combat yet.

"I'll be honest Naruto _**I don't care!**_ and anything that could happen at this point couldn't make my day worse now there's a scroll on those bodies so if you need it to take it." I stated sheathing my sword and picking up Sasuke, I sighed heavily as his weight settled on my shoulder, I walked over to Hinata and she quietly nodded leading us off toward the tower.

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**AN: Y'know maybe he should just buy a flak jacket at this point and leave the exam.**


	12. Arc 3 - Chuunin are Dumb Part 4

**AN: Hey, I decided to post this chapter now because I have no real interest in writing at the moment and all that, so I thought I might as well post a chapter before I go on a Hiatus until I find the want to continue.**

**My lack of interest is probably being propelled by this story at the moment, I say this because not too long ago I realized the other hundred-odd thousand words of the story that had been written out and formatted wasn't what I wanted from AVID and the longer I dwelled on it, the more I realized that AVID might have left me enjoying it more set in another village or even somewhere like Iron. Anyway, what ended up happening with all that extra stuff was that I deleted it so that I could rewrite it all and reformat the arcs to come, wherein I've realized I'm not enjoying writing as much as I used to. at the moment up to chapter 16 is done with around six or seven others that are leftovers from my deleting the old stuff, they're the bits of philosophical discussion and whatnot that I liked too much to ditch. I could post those four completed chapters but I'd rather wait to post anything more until I'm back into wanting to write again.**

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**Arc 3 part 4**  
**Chapter Title: Time and a half**

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we walked for another three and a half hours after our run-in with half our academy class making a hell of an effort to keep both Hinata and me conscious, but seeing as to how messed up she was right now and how I was feeling a lot like they were bruised it was certainly a journey in of itself. I wanted nothing more than for us to just keep walking and so that was mostly if not all of my plan at this point, it's not like there was anything else we could do if the proctors wanted to interfere then they would have already, not just with us either I mean Orochimaru in general because it's not like he hid himself all that well seeing as I could pick him out in a crowd. Surely that Anko woman realized, right? wasn't she like his student for a period of time?

Continuing on through the heavy forest though we eventually made it into this enormous clearing with a mile or two long valley of these gigantic trees with their roots stretching out and around the valley, there was a river that seemed to run through it. My thoughts were cut short when Hinata shot forward with a burst of energy I didn't think she had left in her, and before my eyes I watched the biggest centipede I'd ever seen get turned into blood and guts leaving its carapace exploded all over the place covering the three of us in its contents. She landed in a crouch panting heavily, eyes bulging with the Byakugan active, after a few moments she collapsed into the ground and I rushed forward the best I could, stumbling in the process and nearly ending up on my face.

"Fuck it! we ought to just rest here for the night," I said under my breath as I carried the both of my teammates to an overhang in one of the huge trees that had a relatively hollow under-area that you could crawl into after pushing past a few swaths of moss and smaller tree branches.

It took me longer than I would have liked to, but I checked their injuries as well as my own finding out that Sasuke had indeed bruised ribs while Hinata's were broken in a few places causing her to wake a few times while I was checking them and coughing up blood. It's not like I could stop internal bleeding, I wasn't such a smart person who learned the bare minimum medical jutsu, I wasn't some great apprentice chakra expert that could easily heal their injuries in mere moments. All I could do was sit there and watch everything unfold, as Sasuke would toss and turn occasionally making a noise or two while Hinata coughed up blood like I mentioned, while I wished that I had stuck with my gut and not entered this god's forsaken tournament with no reward. We wouldn't get anything other than a painful death or a violent beating and horrific scarring of a moment in our lives where we were chased and tried to fight one of the most powerful Ninja alive in this day and age, we were to act like that hadn't just happened five odd hours ago.

I fell asleep watching the entrance of our little hole in the ground, when I woke up it wasn't on my own or because of Hinata's coughing, but rather it was because my body found itself racked with pain, it seemed that DOMS or Delayed onset muscle soreness, had shown face and it was killing me. But it was a good thing though despite how painful it was to stretch, I moved over and tapped on Hinata's cheek trying to wake her only taking a moment before her eyes opened and were immediately filled with the obvious pain her body was still dealing with.

Another half-hour passed before we had enough energy to try heading towards the tower, Sasuke was still out like a light leaving him to be carried on my back still. When we were sure that what bleeding we had stopped or was patched up at the least we finally left.

**[Scene Break]**

"Time: Nineteen hours, thirty-three minutes," I said clocking us in as we entered the tower reading the timer on the wall.

"T-takezou…" Hinata said quietly "you didn't need to kill those Amegakure Ninja…" she said, she was referring to a team that tried to jump us as we got the tower but by that point, I had enough chakra to try my hardest at performing a fireball after slashing them up, their entrails and charred flesh were now painted across some trees.

"Yeah… I'm sorry about that… I-I just… I'll be honest Hinata this whole thing is getting to me… I don't know how much more of this I can do if this crap keeps happening." I said back just as quietly and solemnly with my eyes downcast.

"Nn…" Sasuke seemingly woke from where I had dropped him onto the floor.

"Nice to see your awake sleepyhead" I yawned out. "You had me worried I wasn't sure if I'd caused long-lasting brain damage or not," I said using my sword in its scabbard as a crutch after I earned a kunai in my calf again and an umbrella through my thigh.

"Where are we?" he grunted out, rubbing where I'd hit him.

"The tower in the Forest of Death" I answered. "Oh! Hinata you have the scrolls, right? pass them here please." She pulled them out of her hoodie and handed them to me.

I opened them at the same time "Hey Kids! It's been… A while…" Iruka started looking at my bloodied clothing and body, Sasuke and his beaten appearance and Hinata's splinted arm as well as the blood over her.

"Expecting someone… else…" I breathed out heavily trying to catch myself.

"I- Uh, anyway congratulations!" He said louder than I would have liked making me wince "I'm glad to see your all alive anyway, seeing as you've passed the second part of the Exam you can rest here until the section is over, you have to stay here for the duration there's rooms and such through there, good luck!" he pointed his thumb in the direction of a door before dispersing in a smoke cloud.

We dragged ourselves up the stairwell into a common area that had another staircase going up, but there was a door in the room that had bunks in it I went straight there and collapsed into a bed, I heard Sasuke say something about food or starving and I'm pretty sure Hinata went to see if there was a medic-Nin to fix her up. I slept really well, I'm not sure how long I was out for but when I got up Hinata was asleep and Sasuke was reading… my notebook from my bag. I'd be mad if I actually cared there isn't anything in there that could be confidential unless he suddenly learns English, so I decided to settle for catching him red-handed.

"Looking through my things while I'm asleep are we now?" I asked, seeing his head slowly turn towards me.

"No, it fell out of your pack after you collapsed onto the bunk… why is this stuff so specific? Towards Hinata and I." he asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, that? Well because I wrote it for you, I said back when we were assigned to the same team that I wanted to write a book and that happens to be part of it" I said flipping my hand side to side.

"Huh, I guess you writing all the time is starting to make more sense." He stated handing the book back to me.

The next two days passed in a flash with Team 8 showing up, then Team 7, Kabuto's team, the Oto team, and Team Gai but the Suna team had arrived like eighteen hours before us, We got called to an arena where they explained that there was a preliminary much to the dismay of the teams that arrived on the final day left with no time to rest unlike us, we were going to face off in the one on ones to make it into the final. The best part was honestly seeing Sensei, I went over to him immediately and damn near gave him a hug, but rather I asked if I could speak to him for a moment and ran the curse mark by him saying "Orochimaru attacked us in the forest and gave Sasuke some kind of mark that covers him in tattoos when he uses chakra."

"Alright I'll get someone to deal with it after his match," he said, as we looked back to said, Avenger who had just won his match, Sensei talked to Kakashi and then the man just up and kidnapped Sasuke.

I went back over to Hinata who was leaning against the rail next to Naruto "Sensei's gonna deal with you know what." I whispered to her, so she knew why the scarecrow kidnapped our teammate.

"Takezou Rakurai vs Kin Tsuchi!" Hayate said followed by a wet sounding cough. "Wish me luck!" I said hopping the rail landing in a crouch pulling my sword from my back, my knees ached in protest still sore despite adequate rest.

"Begin!"

My mind watched everything play out slowed down, as though time was dilated- it allowed for me to see all that she did without effort, I suppose all that fighting at such a high level with my aunt and using my chakra constantly slowed down my perception so that I could comprehend it, despite how unbelievably fast it might have played out in real-time.

Did she throw senbon with bells attached? Was she mentally challenged? Deficient maybe? What moron does that? Was she trying to distract me from the ninja wire?

She threw another set and a smirk crossed her face as I frowned and cut the wires with my sword. This was pretty sad. I'll be honest.

She got annoyed and started throwing volleys at me, most of which I deflected, I felt like something was wrong with this fight. Like it was slow and too easy. I decided to end it and flashed forward charged full of chakra, something similar to what I had done in the forest but without the intention of throwing myself a couple hundred meters, the best I could on my injured leg and cleaved her through with my sword, which wasn't my intention I had just meant to take her out in a tackle or get her arm, but instead, I threw up again… on her corpse man that wasn't really great huh? There was a resounding sound of disgust afterward, I think I saw Gaara smile, that was terrifying. My god.

My perception of time returned back to normal at that point as well, for a moment I thought I might empty my stomach's contents again when I caught sight of the flesh covered in the foul-smelling liquid, I had cleaved through her chest in an overhead diagonal strike that mostly bisected her leaving only a small part holding the body together. Everything about it was perfectly fine by Ninja standards, even if I was only a kid, even if this was just a game to show off the power of one's village, even if it meant killing kids from one another's villages that already had high tensions in.

"Gods Takezou…" I heard someone say but I didn't see who as there were other voices spouting about what I had done, I just shrugged and washed the taste out of my mouth with my water bottle as well as contemplate the sanctity of human life and why it was that I easily killed others without hesitation, even if I did throw up afterward. I was glad that I hadn't managed to get any on myself, even if the poor Medic-Nin that came out to collect the body had to deal with my emptied bowels.

**[Scene Break]**

Hinata's match got me pretty fucking mad. maybe it was the leftover feelings of resent and whatnot from the forest, but I was seething.

I don't like to become angry and often found it hard to get to such a state, but watching Hinata- with one functioning arm while her other was still broken in several places and her hand basically unusable- watching this girl who was like a sister to me, shit no, she was a sister to me. My parents saw her as a surrogate daughter and treated her and Sasuke like their own children when they were around.

So seeing this girl, fragile in confidence as she was, loving and caring as she was, sat there and took _every single one_ of Neji's attacks, continuing to stand up after each time she was knocked down. It killed me and I knew my anger was reaching a fairly high peak because I had broken a large section of the railing under the pressure of my grip, and the chakra subconsciously being poured all through my body that was part of my keeping my Kekkei Genkai in check, though I had to do it, it wasn't helping the situation. The Girl was dead on her feet… _**WHY THE FUCK WEREN'T THEY DOING **__**ANYTHING?!**_

A few of the teams around me at the time had actually stepped away backing off a meter or so, I didn't care, I was forced to watch her have her good arm broken, to watch more damage be done to her other arm, to watch her suffer and let out choked cries from all the pain racking her body every time it was hit, as more of her ribs were broken and blood sprayed the arena floor. I'm almost glad Sasuke had been taken away to be sealed for the time being because I know he and Hinata had gotten to become fairly good friends over our time together, and with his Uchiha blood there's no doubt in my mind his reaction might have led to attacking Neji.

I calmed somewhat if barely when Sensei loomed over me and said something putting his hand on me at the time, at the very least after he did that I wasn't sitting there about to jump down over the railing that had shattered and contorted, the metal twisted and broken.

It was only when she stopped getting up the final time, she laid there dead as a doornail blood pooling around her and Neji continued to spout off some complete utter bullshit about fate, that his final hit on Hinata ended the match- though he tried to continue- it was for naught though, as his Sensei stopped him as well as the proctor while I was already standing over my teammate with my sword drawn only hoping that he would be so stupid as to Kaiten the Jonin holding him back so that I could butcher him- so that I could _**carve**_ that _**stupid fucking over achieving Hyuuga superiority**__ out of his skull with those eyes and gut his poor carcass __**like a fucking fish**__._

But alas he came to a halt and turned to walk away at which point I was going to say something but Naruto came in out of nowhere and pledged to kick Neji's shit in, so I didn't say anything and just left with the medics that showed up. I stayed with Hinata as long as I could, in fact so long that I missed all the matches and who I was fighting in the final round.

**[Scene Break]**

From what Sensei said they pulled me for, I was supposed to fight Kankuro, while Sasuke had drawn Gaara, at least some things were sticking to the script I suppose. I spent a few days after the prelims in Hinata's Hospital room and trying to get into Sasukes, while I was on my way out of the main foyer of the hospital I heard and saw Naruto yelling while Kakashi sunk into his slouch trying to apologize to the staff for his outbursts. I walked over in an attempt to help Kakashi.

"Hey Kakashi-Sensei, Naruto, what's going on? Cause your kind of disturbing the doctors and nurses." I yawned coming to a stop next to them.

"The Nurse and Sensei won't let me go see that bastard Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, making us wince.

"I hadn't realized you were so close to Sasuke? I thought you two were still at one another?" I wasn't really sure how far their friendship had come seeing as they weren't on the same team.

"Yeah! Of course, we are!" He announced, "We've been friends since the Academy even if he's too stuck up to realize it!" he pumped his fist up into the air exaggerating his thoughts.

"So what about you Sensei? Or were you called here to get rid of Naruto for being a nuisance to the hospital?" I asked the man and he shrugged "Uh-huh, Well I'll be going I have the fight to train for and teammates to worry about, catch you both later!" I waved them as I walked out of the hospital.

I made my way to a Shinobi supply store I frequented for window shopping, also it was where I got the Samurai style bracers, I still had heaps of money left over from the A-rank pay so I wanted to look into getting some more stuff in preparation for the Final Exam.

I wanted to replace my old headband style Hitai-ate with a shinobi grade bandana, I also wanted to replace my mesh armour after it got mangled in the forest, there were some smaller things as well like Kunai and stuff too. I was kind of avoiding home in a way to because after I came home smelling like vomit and covered in the blood of which I explained wasn't my own Mum freaked out and made me spill my guts – metaphorically that is, if I had thrown up she might have kicked me outside while she cleaned up. Anyway yeah, so she knew about everything basically and Dad's thoughts on my first kill were more or less "You'll have to get used to it, and if you don't it won't get easier" not very good advice.

After getting the bandana and other stuff I headed to Aunty Ume's house, when I got there Uncle Toyo was arguing with her about… training?

"How's it going Aunty Ume, Uncle Toyo?" Their heads snapped to me.

Ume put her arm around my shoulders "Now that you're here Takezou, you can tell my little brother that you wanted to train with me in preparation for the final exam!" She said like a child finally getting their way.

"C'mon Ume, you've been training him since he was a kid, can't you let me do some stuff with him? I basically never get to see Nobuyuki's kid let alone ever see him train." Toyo said pleadingly.

"Err… wait so what's going on?" I asked them kinda lost.

"My older sister wants to take you away on a training trip for the month, for your match in the Chuunin Exam, but I finally got this month and the one after it off so I wanted to train with you and actually get to know my nephew, seeing as we don't see one another all that often anymore." He explained.

"That's easy then I want to go with Uncle Toyo," I said easily, Ume acted out being shot in the heart and feigned being distraught over it.

"Takezou how could you?! I thought we had something special then you go and throw it away when someone else presents an offer!" She said faking defeat "You're a monster!"

I laughed at her acting, it was funny when she did this stuff its why I liked hanging out with her, but like Toyo said we hadn't talked all that much and with a chance like this I wanted to take it immediately with how good an offer it was.

"Alright if that's the case we'll talk to your parents about it later today, and we'll probably leave in a few days' time." He said with a smile.

"Sweet I'm really looking forward to this then!" cause I was, I was half hoping he just spent the time teaching me Ninjutsu but it would probably be spent doing all sorts of endurance stuff and making sure I was prepared for fighting the puppet master that was Kankuro.

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**AN: Like I said at the top this is the last chapter for a while, not that it probably matters much considering I posted monthly anyway, but yeah.  
**  
**On another note, though I hope Takezou's freakouts have come across properly and with the right build-up because I was unsure as to how they might come across, I liked them and thought they seemed fine and realistic enough within his developing character, but if you think otherwise or what have you, review and talk about it. I'm always willing to hold discussions should someone want one even if I'm going on hiatus for the time being.**


	13. Arc 3 - Chuunin are Dumb Part 5

**AN: Hey I'm back, pretty sure its only been like two or three weeks, but eh.  
****I'm posting chapters 13 and 14 now then 15 and 16 next week just so that its all finally at a point where its moving into new chapters at which point they be posted monthly again. Plus arc 4 has some of my favourite chapters I've done so far.**

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**Chapter Title: Hidden in the tree leaves  
****Arc 3 Part 5**

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"So, you never explained why we're in the Hashirama forest," I said to Toyohisa as we walked along a beaten dirt path through the enormous trees.

"I've brought you here because it's generally pretty quiet and nice to look at" my Uncle answered as I followed him.

Today was the beginning of our training together, before we came out I went to see Hinata in Hospital and she was awake, she seemed super happy to hear that Naruto had taken to defending her after she was injured, though she berated me for attempting to cut Neji down saying that she still liked him even if he didn't like her. I told her who Sasuke and I matched up against in the final, she was concerned for us seeing as the Suna ninja had been pretty suspicious this entire time, but overall she was just happy we were okay. Sasuke had actually visited at the same time so he told us about how Asuma set him up with Kakashi for the month of training. Hinata was saddled with being in Hospital for the rest of the month at the least, so I planned to visit a few times a week, keep her company and all that.

Come to think of it, I wonder who Kiba will end up training with seeing as his Sensei who was likely the best tracker in the village as far as I was aware, had just pissed off to middle of fuck off nowhere with some kid from another team.

Back to the training though, I had already sort of been using weights for training like Sasuke had as well, but Toyo wanted to give me actual weights and some weighted clothing he brought for me, I was actually super impressed with his preparation and things he'd done. I'd put the weighted clothing on for a few minutes to see if it was the right size and man was it heavy, the clothing was just the Konoha blues, he hadn't said I needed to wear the training weights yet though. That brings us back to why we were walking through the forest, it was one that connected to the Nara forest if I remember correctly.

We had been walking for what felt like forever but was closer to an hour when the treeline broke out into a large open grassy plane, it was probably half a mile in diameter with a large pool formed underneath a waterfall at the back of it where a mountain-backed the area, it looked really pretty. My Uncle walked over to a table with benches seated around it near the catchment of the waterfall and sat his stuff down motioning for me to come over.

"Alright now I can answer in full why we're here, putting it simply we'll make the journey here and back part of the training with your all your weight, other than that it's because here we won't be bothered if we accidentally set a tree on fire" He stated with a laugh at the dismay in my face after he said the journey was training.

"So what's first then?" I was eager to begin with this.

"Well, you already know what your elemental affinities are right?" I nodded "Then we can work on them, so you've got better control with it or we can learn a few Jutsu." He suggested/asked.

"Ah… well, Dad actually helped me out by making a book of Jutsu and techniques he wanted to teach me so if we want to do that stuff we should bring him out here with us." I said somewhat bursting his bubble.

"Actually that's a good idea, Yeah, how about that we snag my brother when we come out next time, so he can teach you that stuff and I'll help." It seemed like he found what he wanted in the bag he'd brought.

He threw the weights to me, they were pretty heavy considering I was going to have them on my arms and legs, they were ten pounds each leaving me at forty total, not counting the already ten pounds of weighted clothing I had. Ume had made me fight her in the fifty-pound armour that she had once, and man can I say that was super hard, we only did that for two sessions before she decided it wasn't worth it. Toyo told me to start running around and just sort of getting used to the weights for a bit, he suggested running around the entire Village, and so I did. It was heavy, hard and uncomfortable.

I decided to stop off at Ichiraku for lunch on my run around the Village, mainly because it was the first stall I came across before my legs gave out, and Naruto was there scarfing a bowl down as fast as he could, I went under the curtain and asked for pork ramen and sat down next Naruto. What uncle Toyo didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Hey Naruto, how's your training going?" I asked as I paid for my food.

"It's alright, but when I went to train with the closet pervert I found a super pervert that summoned toads!" he said emphasizing by pointing with his chopsticks wildly.

"Ah… right… So how are they the perverts if you're the one with the so-called 'Sexy Jutsu' that you made?" my eyebrow was arched.

"Cause! The closet pervert fell for it! And the super pervert was the guy that wrote the crap the Sensei reads all the time!" wait- the crap Kakashi reads? Did he mean-

"Wait, wait did this Super Pervert say what his name was!?" I was excited at the prospect of meeting the Toad Sannin.

"Err… he somthin' 'bout Jiraiya, I think?" he answered.

"That's awesome as shit Naruto! That's one of the Legendary Sannin! He was the Sensei to the Yondaime!" I raised my voice as I got excited but was cut off when someone walked into the stall.

"Right so he's off running around the village, so we have time fo-" Uncle Toyo and his wife Rei who was dressed in her ANBU stuff without the mask walked in.

Rei laughed as I and Toyo looked like a deer in the headlights. "Hey Rei, Toyo…" I said as my Aunt continued to laugh.

"I guess neither of us are doing as we'd said we would, huh?" Toyo said.

"To be fair you said to walk around in them to get used to them and I never promised to finish the run in one sitting," I said as he shook his head with a smile sitting down with Rei and ordering.

**[Scene Break]**

The next day while Dad, Toyo and I were jogging to the spot Toyo had picked out for us yesterday, Dad started asking me about something I hadn't actually thought about in a while since it happened at the beginning of the first Exam.

"So have you had any of those episodes recently where your mind goes blank and your head experiences heaps of pain?" he asked coming up alongside me.

"Err… yeah, I did actually, I had one back right before the first Exam started, there was this guy I had a bad feeling about and the moment he spoke I had an episode in front of basically every Genin in Konoha. It wasn't as bad as the last one and I recovered pretty quickly too." I said also allowing myself to think about the situation again.

"Oh?" He looked at me wanting to hear more.

"It happened when this guy Kabuto Yakushi, he'd been some dropout guy that apparently failed the exam seven times and then his eighth this time, he was trying to hand out cards about people I think, that's what Sasuke told me after the fact anyway." I paused thinking for a moment. "He was _super _suspicious like now that I think about it those cards were dodgy… holy fuck! What if he's a spy?!" I said trying to play off somehow coming to that conclusion naturally.

Dad and Uncle Toyo seemingly stopped for a moment trying to figure out how I got to 'he's a spy' "Um… Takezou you have more proof than that don't you? Surely you wouldn't say something like that without more right?" Toyo asked.

"Well… I mean everyone said he was suspicious, so they didn't talk to him, and I was busy avoiding him in case it happened again so er… there was the fact that I overheard him talking about 'Lord Orochimaru' while I was leaving the hospital from a visit to see Hinata." Hopefully that would be enough for them to run it by someone, everyone in my family was aware that the trouser snake Sannin had attacked us because for obvious reasons I told them.

"Wait, wait, hold a minute when and where," Dad stated more than asked.

"The other day, the night after the prelims, as I said at the Hospital I was on my way out because they finally kicked me out, remember how I came home really late? It was then, I heard hushed talking and decided to eavesdrop like any Ninja would on stuff talked about in public and Kabuto was talking to someone and they mentioned it." Man, I hope this was believable cause I had actually gone out to see if a bar would let me drink. What? In mentally in my thirties, leave me alone. They told me to come back when I was sixteen. Plus killing those people in the Forest hasn't been something I can forget about easily, just thinking about it makes me sick.

"Hm…" Dad's face contorted into something akin to a thinking face before he spoke: "Alright, I'll go see if I can get someone to look into it." He said finally, just in time for us to arrive at the training spot as well.

We started off on that run around the Village like I was supposed to and this time I did it properly, mostly because both of them came with me to make sure and so they were warmed up to, when we arrived back at the park table with our stuff on it I idiotically asked Dad for a spar where he didn't hold back, putting it simply I lost by several miles. Man, I was getting super cocky about my skill, that was gonna get me killed if I didn't reign it in, and to think I give Sasuke shit over it. We spent most of the time just running through the first few pages of the book which was katas and such.

Before we headed home late in the afternoon I was playing around Jutsu combos with my wind ones and a few fire ones I learned, Uncle Toyo taught me this cyclone/tornado one I had planned to try master it over the next month and work it into a combo with The Dragon Flame Jutsu. Dad and my Uncle had shown me what it could look like, so I'd have an example to strive towards. It was genuinely beautiful to see in action, the combo of them was insane and destructive as heck. They ended up having to spend ten minutes trying to put the forest out with water jutsu, too bad it would be super hard for me to learn water jutsu, there are some cool ones, like the water dragon and such.

After going home and cleaning up I headed out into the village to find Naruto because I wanted to talk to him about something, and I was going to visit Hinata to see if she's feeling any better. It was actually pretty hard to find Naruto I went to the usual Ichraku, but he wasn't there when I went to the hot springs where I'd assumed he'd be with Jiraiya or Ebisu, where I found him was not really where I expected, mainly because I had given up on looking for him by this point and had gone to the Hospital to see Hinata, he was talking to her when I came by her room.

"Oh! There you are Naruto." I said walking into Hinata's room, there were more cards than the last time I visited.

"Heya Takezou! Were you looking for me?" he asked.

"Well I mean you're already here talking to Hinata which is what I was going to suggest you do before going against Neji, so I don't really have heaps to say all things considered." I scratched my cheek.

"H-how're you Takezou?" Hinata asked from the bed looking bored of only having white walls to look at.

"I'm doing alright, I started training with my Uncle and my Dad, oh and Sasuke has basically been kidnapped by Kakashi for the month so we can't bother him for conversation. Also, Naruto, while I remember, would you be able to introduce me to Jiraiya before the month is out? I want to ask him about something." The blonde tilted his head and nodded.

**[Scene Break]**

It was three days later when I was playing around with the Wind Style: Cyclone Jutsu trying to make them bigger because at the moment the ones I produced were about six to eight feet tall, but the one Toyo made was twenty to thirty feet tall. It was only a C-rank Jutsu apparently, so it wasn't too hard to learn all things considered, anyway I was with just Dad today because my Uncle got cucked by the Village and they put him on the roster again for duty without him knowing. Apparently, there was something going on that needed his attention, it might have to do with what I told him and Dad, but I'm not sure. Dad was mostly just standing around with a smoke giving me advice or sitting around and smoking giving me advice, occasionally he'd start a dialogue or I might depending on what I was doing.

Most of the week had been like this and with a few days left before it was out I wasn't too bothered by the idea that the rest of the month would be like this, though I imagine I'll hit an impasse in my learning how much better I can get. There really wasn't much that I was doing aside from beating the new jutsu into my system as much as possible and going off to visit Hinata, though I managed to find out where Kakashi had stowed Sasuke away at. They were out at a training field that was still technically Konoha but was outside its walls, the place was probably an hour or two out of the way, so it was relatively easy to take time out to go there which was what I planned on today, I was going to head home at eleven and make an abundance of food for lunch and head out at or just after noon.

I took a look to the sky and it was about ten- thirty or so, Dad was doing a few different stretches and jogging around when I looked over to him.

"Hey Dad! Want to spar?" I called to him from under a tree as I downed a bottle of water.

I think there was a morbid joke about him only having one arm because he looked at his non-existent arm like it had watch "Sure!" He called back after that. He came over to where I was and had something to drink before we went out into the opening and took our stances, he took advantage of the fact that I was Kenjutsu trained before taijutsu leaving me to have a lot of openings in my stance because of that. Maybe I should work on my Taijutsu? Nah, I'll just cut them up before they make me need to.

We both watched as a leaf fell between us waiting for it to touch the grass, the moment it did I rushed forward and went to kick his feet out from under, but instead I got a knee to the face, I scrambled backwards out of his range, he followed me keeping his momentum forcing me to grab for the dirt throwing it at him. I dodged away as his fist nearly hit me, standing up again I rushed and was thus flipped on my ass and sat on as Dad punched me, I held my block until a moment arose where I kicked him off me with both feet.

Dad rolled out of the way as I went to land on him, he kicked me in the ribs sending me flying across the ground, I slammed into a tree winding me, recovering I stumbled forward and continued my assault. We fought like this for another twenty odd minutes before Dad called it, we packed up quickly and made it home.

When I finished making the food, which was just a selection of club sandwiches, and headed out to the spot Kakashi and Sasuke were held up from what I remembered. I honestly think that Kakashi wouldn't feed him if he could get away with it, so my plan was this way to slowly take the world over with my cooking. Wait… wrong plan that was the backup if being a powerful pun master failed, anyhow the journey there was kinda interesting I guess, it was nice to see a different area of Konoha, one that I normally didn't get to most of the time.

When I turned up in the stone plateau there was a screeching that I would akin to the sound of birds chirping, oh… right. When I came out into the main opening Kakashi was stood there reading his book, Sasuke with messed up torn and ripped clothes was pulling his hand from a rock, the Jonin seemingly smiled as he noticed my presence and decided to substitute the crate of kunai next to him with the container of food in my hand, the suddenness of it made me drop it making them clatter. Sasuke's attention snapped to our direction.

"You are genuinely an asshole, you know that?" I said picking them off the ground and putting them in the crate again.

He shrugged as Sasuke came over "Hey… Takezou, what are you doing here?" he asked, taking a few sandwiches from the container.

"Well the idea of feeding you properly comes to mind because I doubt that he could," I paused jamming my thumb in Kakashi's direction earning a snort from Sasuke "and because I wanted to see what you'd be up to, plus I doubt I can beat my opponent so I'm not bothered by spilling secrets with you" I said getting some food for myself.

"I guess that's fair, so what have you been learning then? And how's Hinata since I last saw her?" He asked as we sat down, showing more concern than I had realised he would. Though I suppose he had been relatively open with us since before the exams, but it has just become more pronounced now.

"Before I answer that, what the fuck happened to your hands? they look worse than when we were learning about chakra nature stuff with Sensei."

Not long after I arrived and was subsequently forced to help train they went back to training and I bid my farewell, heading home as the sun was heading towards the horizon, by the time I arrived home which had taken an hour or so longer than it would have had I not done the race, the Sun was sitting on the horizon enveloping its last rays of orange upon the sky. The night passed without much incident, normal as ever.

* * *

**AN:**


	14. Arc 3 - Chuunin are Dumb Part 6

**AN: I think If I had to explain what A Vagabond In Death was, I'd probably say it was a story about a guy who slowly gets everything he wants and has everything else pulled out from under him and its almost a case study of watching how he responds to it.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Fishing Trip  
****Arc 3 Part 6**

* * *

A week of training went by until one morning Dad said his brother wouldn't be joining us due to work as well as needing to spend time with his family, taking this as it was I decided to head to my Aunts house with Dad having also said he was being called off to do work and so seeing as my Aunt wasn't a Shinobi and had told all her students they had the month off while the exams were on, she became the person I turned to. When I arrived walking in through the gate in the large wooden fence that wrapped around their property, stepping onto the gravel path that led around all the buildings and the dueling area outside the dojo, I ducked almost without thinking as my instincts flared. I rolled to the left looking back at where I had been standing seeing two shuriken embedded deep into the wood of the gate.

"Damn I missed." A voice said from further down the path.

"Didn't you nearly scalp me once doing something similar when I was younger?" I asked my aunt.

"Probably." Ume said, raising a hand to her mouth as she yawned. She was dressed in a dark blue kimono and sandals, it was a little weird to see her dressed so casually seeing as I almost always saw her dressed in Gi or bits and pieces of armour, though I suppose I was no better I had just grabbed my Gi and weights then turned up without my weapons.

"What did you want anyway? Aren't my brothers training you for the exams?" Ume asked, turning away and motioning for me to follow her.

"I am, but Dad and Uncle Toyo got called into work." I answered back walking next to her, we slowly moved towards the dojo going past the back veranda of the old japanese style house they owned.

"What so you came to me because you're either bored or incapable of training without an adult around?" She said facing me with a smirk as we stepped into the dojo's genkan.

"Well it's nothing like that, it's because you wanted to train me for the finals and seeing as my other trainers are off then it seemed to make this a great time for you to make off with me." I said half jokingly, I was more or less pointing back to when she said she was going to kidnap me away for training.

"Oh, you're right aren't you..." her voice trailed off and suddenly I felt a horribly sharp stinging pain as my vision blacked out.

**[Scene Break]**

When she landed on a path that led up to the door of her younger brother's house she unceremoniously dropped her nephew she'd knocked out after he had come to her and asked her to take over his training for the next three weeks. Initially she hadn't intended on doing anything, but decided that there was something she could do that would confuse everyone and she'd get a fishing trip out of it. It had been quite a while since she had gotten a chance to enjoy her pastime of being a nuisance.

Ume knocked on the door waiting a minute before the dark skinned red and silver haired woman she called her sister opened it. The woman from the land of Lightning watched her with a raised brow as though expecting something to be wrong.

"Hello Kaede." She said with a fiendish grin.

"Ume?" Kaede asked back confused.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm taking Take out on a fishing trip for the next three weeks and don't worry I'll bring him back before the exam day." not letting the other woman react Ume turned to the boy lying unconscious on the dirt path picking him up and disappeared at a speed that most Jonin would have trouble following.

When Ume finally stopped she had been running for two nearly three days and ended up near the border to the Land of Iron, they were roughly a day from her childhood home in some of the most rural woods in the land of fire, she had chosen the spot when she knew the exams were coming up. Seeing her starting point she climbed up an enormous rock spire that overlooked the valley they were in, seeing a large river run right through it and catching sight of tens of different animals in Deer, Elk, boar/pigs and a large variety of birds. The spot had enough variety in it for her to replicate the forest of death to an effect if she wished, or at the least she'd be able to force him into survival training. That and with her parents home so close she could drag him off there towards the end of the training so he could learn about sword making and sharpening.

_'Now, I guess I could go start making a camp somewhere around here and just leave him up here to figure it out for himself.'_ The amber eyed woman stretched for a moment before leaping off of the spire using what chakra training she had and her self taught techniques to land and start moving immediately without incident.

As she continued away from where she had left her disciple and nephew heading towards where the river had been and stopped short of it, Ume pulled out a bamboo fishing rod and a packet of bait she had brought prior to leaving the village and set herself up to start fishing while she waited for it to rain- she could see rain clouds rolling in from the south and was convinced that they'd do a good job of waking Takezou from his sleep.

The Kenjutsu instructor sat silently with a pleased smile as she fished the rest of the waning day away, it was midday when she had arrived in the valley spending the entire afternoon fishing left her with enough fish caught to feed a family for a week, though she let most of them go prefering to only keep a few for eating. It took her no longer than an hour to make a patch under a fallen tree to sleep on and be protected from the elements while her student had yet to wake from what she could tell. _'Too bad… The rain is going to start soon, guess it'll be dark when he wakes.'_

Somewhat proud of herself she went to sleep uncaring of the world.

**[Scene Break]**

When my eyes opened it wasn't of their own volition but rather a side effect of throwing myself upward as heavy rain came down upon the world in throws, there were enormous gales that threw me around at which point I was pushed off what I was on and a sinking feeling pooled in my stomach as I felt myself plummeting towards whatever was below in the pitch black world I found myself in. Gaining some semblance of stability my senses were reigned in and I punched my hand out towards where I was sure the wall of what I had fallen from was and with it coated in chakra I stopped myself from falling further as it dragged down for a few meters.

Feeling a lump in my throat I looked around and tried to gather my bearings, all around me was nothing but darkness, the night sky was the only thing I could make out in the world, the stars shedding their light. Taking a deep breath to calm myself I reached around with the rest of my body coating it in chakra and stood up on the vertical surface and began walking down it towards where I assumed the ground was. Reaching the earthen floor below after ten minutes of carefully scaling down I set myself down on the grass that was there and sat around calming my mind as thoughts raced through it trying to understand what was happening. My Gi was soaked to the bone already so I had taken it off walking toward what I could make out as a tree with a dry patch under its branches where I thusly lit a bush next to me on fire after digging up a hole in the dirt for it to rest in rather than accidentally starting a forest fire or something similar, with a light source I was able to make out more of my wet surroundings and remembered something that I was glad for and circulated chakra around my body at which point I felt like it was more like an average summer's day despite the cool air and rain beating down on the area.

I ended up falling asleep while I attempted to dry my clothing, waking as the sun rose across the horizon and its red locks took to the sky.

Everything was damp and muddy as it slowly dried out, I sat up before standing and walking to where my Gi was laid out, picking up the pants of the outfit as they were the only dry part I put them on and left the shirt at my waist almost wishing that I had worn my full samurai getup that Ume had gotten me so that the shirt would rest around my waist properly. Speaking of Ume, this was probably her fault I imagine. I probably should have expected this and also should've not asked for her to take over. I might not even make it back to the village in time for the exams, but who knows with her.

I began walking towards what sounded like running water, my throat was dry and my stomach was rumbling feeling like an empty pit as I stumbled along through the forest I seemed to be in. Sighing to myself I stopped for a short break after twenty minutes of walking to stretch, all my joints were stiff and felt uncomfortable. Another hour of walking went by before I managed to find an enormous river, I got turned around several times before finding my way again.

The bank of the river was dirt, stones and sand. The water was a nice clear blue and looked almost fantasy like, I looked up and down the stream gathering in as much as I could before noticing a smell that threw me off, it smelt like cooked fish- so enhancing my sense of smell with chakra I followed along the riverbank until I found a little pathway that went on for a good five minutes into the forest again and finally a small fire came into view and I caught sight of a person. Coming to a stop in front of the fire I was greeted.

"Oh good you're awake, we can start the fishing trip now." My Aunt Ume said with a shiteating grin like no other.

"I didn't know you liked fishing?" I said playing along with whatever scheme she had cooked up in that head of hers. I sat down on the ground across from her.

"Why yes I have always enjoyed it, I used to do it a lot when I was younger. So do you want me to teach you how to then?" She asked with a genuine smile rather than her grin.

I gave a short nod and stood "Sure why not, though I know the basics already." I responded as she handed me a bamboo rod from out of thin air.

"Good then this should only take a minute, then we can fish the day away." Before I knew it she'd managed to displace us from the campsite to the riverbank.

Was this how fast she really was? Because what the fuck! I could never get this fast! T-this is like lightning or something- it's too fast to follow. I guess this is why she was always holding back… I wonder how she'd do against Sensei or someone like Kakashi- hell even Orochimaru. Though I suppose my aunt did mention only ever becoming a genin for the initial chakra training and never going any further with it and focusing on her swordsmanship.

"You look a little dazed, am I going too fast for you?" Ume asked, looking concerned.

"Nah it's not that… I've just been reminded of the gap between our skill levels is all." I replied and started setting up the rod she'd given me, it was actually more advanced than I initially assumed, it had a reel and mechanism for it and all. After a few minutes of telling me how everything worked she let me put the bait(cheese for some reason) on the hook and then we cast our lines.

Today was something else wasn't it? I woke up on a spire in the middle of nowhere, it was raining heavily, I still don't know why we're here and on top of that my Aunt genuinely looks like she's the happiest I've ever seen her while we fished of all things. What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Despite it all, I was enjoying myself as well though. Fishing was fun, I always liked doing it, but never really had a chance to in the village with how everything was, and it's not really like I left myself and my parents much room for that sort of thing when I was in and out of the house all the time spending so much of it at my aunts learning from her or getting roped into shit with her and my uncle. Not that I regret making such a strong bond with my aunt and uncle, after all I'm like their son more than their nephew and I wouldn't want it any other way, they treat me like someone who was the same age as them too which is great, it means I don't have to pretend I'm a rock with no brains because otherwise I'll have another five year old me with my mother Kaede on our hands. I love my mother, but she did sort of have a weird freak out moment when she realized I was much smarter than your average bear.

I wouldn't change how I acted back then, but I definitely should have handled it better, but I had been so bored and sick of what I was getting for educational material and whatnot, plus I mean who wants to sit around and read children's books in a language that they're learning at a pace that is comparable to learning new words in their first language. Like, I have a lot of trouble with Kanji, but speaking the language and writing things in Hiragana is perfectly fine- almost like it was second nature to speak it, maybe that had something to do with my being reincarnated or whatever this is.

Guess that's all behind me now anyway, so I'll just leave that as is and focus on fishing with my aunt.

I had no clue how long we were doing it for, but when we finally stopped and went back to where she had her campfire I was audibly hungry with my stomach making a ruckus that had my Aunt giggling like a schoolgirl about my starving state. We had only kept two fish each of what we caught, and I was going to be filleting them, deboning them and disposing of all the shit- basically I was going to be our glorified cook and cleaner on this trip of ours.

"You sure you don't want any of this?" She asked, referring to her hand that was filled with berries she had found, I shook my head and continued on holding the fish and the rods.

It didn't take me too long to set up a rack for the fish to grill on over the fire and get to work on gutting them, my Aunt lounged around taking a nap while I worked away at keeping us fed, it was weird though, I felt like I hadn't eaten in days, but we were probably only just outside the village or something right? How could I be starving like this? I mean I was struggling to move around too much and was pretty tired for a lack of energy. Was I really starved? What was going on?

**[Scene Break]**

Two days passed and all we did was fish, was she serious when she'd said this was a finishing trip? Because I did actually want to participate in the Chunin Exam, though at the same time I think it might be better if I was to miss out on them, after all Neji's presence and face still makes me think quite volatile thoughts.

Today though I had been tasked with making my own camp for while we're here so that I could revise my knowledge from the academy relating to survival as well as hunting and gathering.

If I'm honest then I can say that I remembered fuck all from my academy lessons because I was either out of class doing training with my aunt or reading on my own whilst watching everyone seeing as that became a pass time of mine, let alone the fact that a lot of the work we were given never really seemed all that relevant to Ninja life and seemed more like they were also catering for the more civilian children in the classes, despite the fact that there were several civilian schools in Konoha.

Anyway, I decidedly just left her camp and went to find an overhang nearby, lo and behold I found a couple of trees that had been knocked down and were currently being propped up by what looked to be the old stone ruins of something, now you might think that I was talking about living under the knocked down trees, but no I was referring to them leading me to the ruins in which seemed to be a crumbled away at building in which I planed to use as shelter and make a fire just outside of. It was pretty dry in the buildings remains, I would have guessed that it would have been flooded and soaked right through, but here it was as dry as a shaded damp forest would let it be- which was in fact fairly dry.

It was probably mid afternoon before I had finished fixing together some form of bed to sleep on in the dilapidated building, I had found a bunch of flax and spent a while weaving them to make something to lay on. I was interrupted as I was finishing up when my Aunt appeared from the surrounding brush and walked around what I had found.

"Nice spot you found here." She said exploring the ruins.

"Yeah it's decent… Hey Aunty Ume, do you know anything about Kyudo?" I asked to change the subject, I had been wanting to do some archery for a while now and my Aunt was well versed in Samurai arts so I imagine she knows at least something.

"Uh no I don't know much of anything about kyudo sorry, though I think there's a Kyudo dojo near my house run by this old guy, maybe you should stop by it sometime- I can take you after the exams if you want?" My Aunt asked me back, I agreed to it. I look forward to it.

The day rolled over and my Aunt had moved into the dilapidated building and was standing outside it when I woke up waiting for me. It was early in the morning and I wasn't really in the mood for her antics.

"So more fishing then?" I asked while I was finishing what was left of my catch from the other day.

"Nah something more fun today, we're going to be doing some training for a while." She stepped towards a path I had made that lead towards the river bank. "How's your water walking and fighting while doing it?"

"It's alright I suppose." I answered as we stepped onto the river.

Immediately she burst forward creating a vacuum of air behind her that threw water around in a small explosion of pressure as her foot came down on me and I lost my footing falling under the water being tossed about by the heaviness of the current she had created. It took me longer than I would have liked before I gained enough of my senses again to climb back on top of the water and stare at Ume for a moment before she burst into hysterical laughter at my soaked form I imagine.

"Right well that went far worse than I had thought it would, I thought that you'd been training with my brothers and doing chakra nature training with your sensei?" Ume finally said when she had calmed down.

"You know I am still wearing my weights right? I haven't gotten used to them yet." I explained pulling up the pants on my Gi revealing the bands that wrapped around my leg from below my kneecap to just above my ankle, after showing that I rolled up my sleeves showing the similar bands that covered from just before my wrist to before my elbow.

"Huh? But didn't you say to me that training with weights was too much for you?" She said with a raised brow and a hand on her hip.

"No, I said that training in a full suit of armour as a eleven year old was really difficult because you tried to go straight to our normal pace while I was still getting used to walking around in it and you almost killed me because I tripped into you as you were doing a thrust with the sword." I corrected, man I hated that day so much, she tried me again the next day but it didn't work out.

"Oh yeah! I remember now! It went right through your shoulder out through your back and Kaede- Kaede…" Ume trailed off giving me a pretty good Idea of what my mother had either said to her or done to her.

"You know I still have the scar from that? Anyway lets get back to this training then" I got into my mishmash of styles that I had put together from watching Hinata, Sasuke and Sensei.

"Pfft! I never thought I'd see the day when a descendant of Lightning using the Hyuuga style- Hahaha" she burst into laughter again.

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**AN: Sometimes being kidnapped for a fishing trip is the right thing to do.  
****Probably anyway.**


	15. Arc 3 - Chuunin Are Dumb Part 7

**AN: I mentioned in last chapter how I would describe the story as a whole and I'd like to reiterate that by saying that everything he attains comes with a price, whether that is paid for immediately or possibly even before or after the damage is dealt really just comes down to what you assume was the price for what.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: It was something Like cracks in a blade**  
**Arc 3 part 7**

* * *

Her fist flew past my head.

It was slowly becoming a common occurrence for her to do so in our Taijutsu spars. It's been three days since our first one that she had us do on the river, so I think we must've been here for nearly two weeks already? It feels like time has flown by without much warning. Moments after her punch though I was kicked in the gut and sent flying into the river and bounced off its bottom getting launched out and slamming into a tree, it winded me fairly badly as I gasped for air for a good minute before my breathing returned to normal. Ume landed close by walking up to me as I recovered.

"Huh, I don't think I've gotten used to booting you with those weights yet… want to let me try again?" she joked offering me a hand as I began to stand.

I took the offered hand. "I'd really rather you not, seeing as every time you've kicked me like that it feels like my spine is being displaced." groaning from the pain I rubbed my stomach for a moment before attempting to stretch at which point I started to feel that 'displaced spine' part of this that I was complaining about. "Ugh, why do you always kick me in the back or stomach?"

"You know I could always start kicking you in the head again if you want?" Ume's grin scared me as the memories of the earlier years of my training when she'd nearly kicked my head off my shoulders and I was in hospital for two weeks, gods I think I'm starting to realize why my mother has had problems with my training at times and also why Ume often chose to hide behind me from my mother when she would come back home with me after training.

"I'll stick to this for now." I finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"Hey Takezou?" my Aunts voice stopped me in my tracks as I had begun walking away from her back to the camp.

"Uh yeah?" I turned toward her seeing an expression that didn't suit her at all, it was that of somber dwelling.

"You know, that path you're headed towards may not seem all that bad for you at the moment, but just remember following the path of least resistance isn't always the best option despite how things may seem." There was something to what she said that made my mind uneasy. "It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first. So with this remember that doing things you don't find comfortable may bear as many fruits if not more then those present on the bank of the stream." Her eyes caught mine and I felt as if they were piercing right through my soul and past me.

"Right." was all I could manage to get out of my mouth before I watched her turn and walk off.

While I was left on my own I reminded myself to stop the flow of chakra in my body that wasn't needed for me to live, back on what would've been our second day I had decided to reduce my use of chakra whenever I wasn't training so that I could train myself without it, on top of that I haven't used a single jutsu not even the substitution. It was nice to feel free of some of the weight chakra left on your body through how interwoven it is into shinobi life, where I now felt almost lighter not having it in my system constantly.

**[Scene Break]**

Her words had stuck with me quite a bit, a day had passed, we'd trained again and she'd given me pointers, but I was still caught up on what had been said. I had always been someone who had enjoyed taking the path of least resistance and just generally keeping myself to Wu Wei or some Taoist stuff where I could and so it was so confusing for someone to call me out on an aspect of myself that I had vague memories of people praising me for, not that I really understood said praise. Her words though, there was something heavier there.

She used to always love throwing philosophies at me while I was over, literally sometimes in the form of books, and I'd indulge myself in them, if not for her sake but my own and whenever she did nothing really ever caught me the way she had done saying what she did. Maybe it was long ago I had given up on that sort of thing so her calling out my path like that stuck something underneath all the junk in my head that has been clogging my mind up.

Ume… Ume has been something akin to a support in this life, the more I look at it and realise what she's been doing for years, she was always the place I could go to and be myself around without restrictions, I loved her for it too. Mum asks me from time to time what draws me to love sword fighting and hanging around my aunt so much, and I always answered 'Because I can let go' or that 'it was an outlet', Mum understood, but what I think got to her about it was the fact that I was otherwise really passive and detested conflict of any kind, choosing to abstain from anything violent where possible outside of the Kenjutsu. It was right enough reason though wasn't it to ask your son whether or not he was okay, that was something I treasured about my relationships, even though it's such a simple thing it made me happy to hear Kaede or Nobuyuki ask that sort of thing, especially because it could be so easy to ignore someone's mental health by just letting it be. The Shinobi lifestyle probably has a large bearing on them being so upfront with me about it, well that and I've not exactly been the most normal child to have had, it might have been different had Katsuya not died at birth.

Right now though I was just walking through the forest looking for something that wasn't fish to eat, I think I had seen some rabbits earlier in the week. I found several small maybe palm sized stones that I sharpened with Chakra, they had become more like arrowheads or small spearheads, I had done this a few days ago and tried out their effectiveness, I managed to get the stones to pierce a tree pretty deep. The problem with that was that those stones had been much smaller so they got destroyed once it hit anything, so the idea with these palm sized ones was that they'd keep shape and likely just go right through whatever I threw them at.

I spent what felt like an hour or two using the very limited hunting skills I had to find something worthwhile, what I came across was a handful of boars feeding near a pond that was probably only just big enough to fish with a hand line or spear fish. My throwing skills had improved quite a bit since I started training with my dad and uncle as well as my aunt now, eyeing my target - it was a boar that had moved away from its sounder, or well I think a group boar is called a sounder… I'd look pretty stupid if its not.

As I stepped forward in the brush hidden from the sight of the wild pigs I was reminded that my weights were on at the worst possible time, the stone had been let loose going right towards the skull of the animal I had deigned for our meal, as it went in through one side causing a large splatter of blood as it came out the other side making more viscera spray across the ground and plants around it as the boar dropped dead. Now see the weights were a problem because they were even heavier without using chakra so I had stepped on a twig snapping it, while that and the death of their member seemed to be enough to scare off most of the sounder, that left two of them that were very angry and also nearly as tall as I was.

Both of the angry beasts squealed as they ran at me an a rage, their speed caught me off guard allowing for one of them to smash into my side throwing me to its friend of whose tusks decided to make acquaintances with my face as it dragged them up through it in one swift motion narrowly missing my right eye.

I didn't need to see my reflection to know that from just below my lip on the left side of my face up through it along my cheek and carved in around my nose up past my eye to the top of my forehead.

Blood gushed from my face forcing my left eye closed as I attempted to skirt around another rush from the boar, though they both came from my right gratefully, it allowed me to maneuver around one and twirling in the air a moment copying a move I had seen once and with all the force I could muster using the heaviness of the weights to push it further kicking the boars neck and skull down with enough force that aside from hearing it, I could feel everything in that area of the kick shatter as it turned to mush as I was covered in more blood, getting only a second to recover pushing off the now presumably dead boar to face the other that seemed to start shaking before squealing and running off toward where the others had gone earlier.

I fell to my knees instantly after it was out of sight and let out a loud paind "_FUCK!_" echoing into the forest, as the adrenaline drained from me and I noticed my face was covered in dirt as well as my blood not helping the large line that had been carved up my face.

'_And I still have to bring that boar back to camp… ugh!_'

**[Scene Break]**

"Ow ow ow! Stop!" I winced as my Aunt tried her best at patching me up, as it turned out my thigh had been punctured and my ankle was nearly broken from that kick because it was too much for my untrained body- or my body without chakra flowing through it.

"You know, if this was a normal situation I might have told you to man up or something similar, but this isn't like those other times, this is a time when you get to see me in Mother mode." Ume said ignoring my pleas for her to stop while she wrapped some bandages around where my leg got hit.

"I'm glad you'd go so far for me then." I said almost sarcastically, but I'm sure she knew I did mean it.

A small grin turned into a smile on her face. "Listen here you little sod, I love you like I love my own daughter, so let's just focus on you losing your only good asset." Ume poked at my face emphasizing what she thought my only good asset was. "Hmm… maybe I was wrong the more I look at it the more you look like someone who just got disfigured in a training accident."

"Sure whatever, laugh at me more." I replied rolling my eyes then immediately wincing and trying not to make more noise forgetting in that moment that yes my face was still in pain and that it had only been fifteen minutes since it happened. Ume had found me about five minutes after I had yelled into the forest, she found me dragging the boar corpse back having set fire to the other.

Not long after this we traveled back to the dilapidated building where I was forced to rest and she began skinning the animal and taking the cuts from it she thought best and actually asking a few times whether I knew much about the different cuts of meat, which I did, I had done a lot of learning about the things a butcher needed to know in case it became handy for cooking on missions, while this hadn't been what I had in mind back then it works just as well.

The rest of the day bled in and out for me as I napped where I could until the food was ready, when I had been roused from my sleep for said food my face was stinging with pain and I had to keep my eye shut to keep it from getting worse.

When the next morning rolled through I had just decided to take a length of bandages and wrap it around my forehead and then over my left eye, kinda like how Kakashi has his Hitai-ate. Ume had let out a short laugh when she saw what I'd done to help keep me from causing myself anymore pain. Despite my lack of perception we still trained my taijutsu on the river, I mean really the whole point of it was to get me better at multitasking my skills e.g. not fall through the water because I lost my concentration when I got hit, or getting used to these weights some more seeing as they were still somewhat awkward for me.

It was nearing the end of the day again when I was cooking what was left of what we'd taken from the boar, while I was doing this my aunt had gone fishing about an hour ago and I was more or less assumed she'd have showed up about now, but I couldn't see any sign of her anywhere.

The area around my eye was less irritated now so I was able to take the bandages off for the moment, I traced my index finger along it wincing slightly before sighing as I remembered that I was going to have to explain it to my mother. Kaede wasn't going to let Ume train me for the next year… damn it. I'm going to need to talk mum out of killing Ume over this, it was my fault it happened after all.

While I was distracted in my thoughts I hadn't noticed Ume walk into the camp area.

"Hey kid?" her voice made me look up seeing her with a skeptical expression.

"Mm?"

"Is it me or is your hair a little more grey? Like maybe it's just the lighting or maybe I haven't really cared for it before until now, but it really does look like there's more." She explained stepping over and picking up a large part that was silvery-greyish, I had to agree with her it looked like there was more.

"Huh… yeah it kinda does, eh. I'll get over it, I mean maybe it's just my hair getting longer cause it kinda is past my shoulders and it's not like I have anything to tie it up with." I said almost more like I was just airing thoughts about it rather than considering it further, I mean mum's looked more like highlights in her hair rather than how mine had ended up where it was more like flakes of it and now it seemed thicker in those places.

"Uh, right." there was a pause. "Well I guess if you aren't going to worry then I won't then." Ume moved back and sat down where the cuts of boar meat were grilling.

"I mean, how bad could it be right? It doesn't really matter right now, also when are we going back to the village? I'd like to participate in my match." I was enjoying my time here but I also wanted to be in the village when everything went down so I could do something for my team.

"If you aren't worrying then I'll leave it, but just remember that you shouldn't try to rush to every milestone, it starts wearing you down before you know it. You might end up looking like someone ten or twenty years older because of it." her tone became a little more somber and it reminded me that she was also covered in minor scarring.

"Right."

"Here's an analogy you might understand better- we're all like blades in that if we don't take care of ourselves, mentally, physically and a few other ways we'll start getting chips, nicks and the blade will start getting dulled- maybe even rusted." I almost imagine her running her hands along a damaged blade pointing out said damages.

"So if you don't remember to look after all those things and make sure you're happy and doing what you really want then… you'll get cracks in your blade that no blacksmith will be able to repair- things like hatred or vengeance is the sort of thing that people who can't look sorrow in the eye run off to- like that stuff your friend is after, they are the sort of thing that you soak in blood constantly 'to get closer' as it rusts the blade making it worse until finally you go to sharpen it- and all those cracks of your fears and built up emotions cause it all to snap." Ume imitated a blade snapping in half by using a stick as its **Crack** echoed into the forest.

"Take care of yourself, Takezou."

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**AN: ****foreshadowing is a troublesome thing.**


	16. Arc 3 - Chuunin Are Dumb Part 8

**AN: So I'm currently writing chapter 32 nearing on its end and looking to see what I do in 33, but at the moment a large issue is more whether or not I want to actually go into Part 2/Shippuden, there are a few reasons I might do it but there isn't a lot for me to do so. Another thing though is that over the next few chapters there is a transition to even shorter chapters- which hopefully I can rectify and add more to, but because of they way I write I often leave myself feeling like I've found a place to end- none of them go below 2.5k words which isn't too bad I suppose but obviously its not good either and considering I've made it my mission to make most chapter at the least 4k. **

**Anyway on to the chapter, I can complain about my odd work ethic later, especially because that later might entail chapter 32 which is currently one of my favourite to write.**

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**Chapter Title: Keeping the Blade Sharp**  
**Arc 3 part 8**

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"Are you ready to head out then Kiddo?" Ume said standing ahead of me on the river bank that we had spent the last week or so hanging around.

Wordlessly I followed after her yawning from how tired I was feeling, there was something about waking up at the crack of dawn that made me feel tired even when I was wide awake like I was right now. We were headed home from what I could tell, but I wasn't sure how likely it would be that we'd get there today after I had asked her and she'd said it would take us about a day to get there probably longer because I was still injured.

Traveling was pretty slow and easy going as we walked along through the forest trudging through the brush, it was quite beautiful the scenery we past, there was a lot of open plains once we got a few hours in and all the mountains in the distance started to throw me off a fair bit seeing as they were snow topped and the land of fire didn't have any mountains with snow on them in it. Only Cloud and Iron did, so why the hell were they…

I decided to ignore this facit and just enjoy what I saw and think about how I was going to deal with this tournament that I was supposed to be thrown into and expected to live, I had a plan for the most part and no one other than my Aunt was aware of it because I thought it was too funny to not tell anyone about and that led to her giving me tips on how to employ it and do it at the right time. The best part was I was set to fight after the first match so I'd be able to do it early on and throw people off or confuse them for the most part. Just thinking about it made me snigger for a moment catching the ire of Ume who decided to ignore it.

We began heading away from the mountains keeping them as our backdrop, by the time the sun had begun to go down we stopped to eat leftovers and rest up for half an hour before we set off again traveling into the night, it was at that point that we began to pick up the pace and we ran through the night.

It was a pretty nice night, the moon was full and the stars were nice and visible.

I didn't go for walks at night, but traveling like this was making me want to, I was really enjoying it. The more I watched the stars the more my gaze drifted around and I began to take notice of the rest of the world around us, it was cut short though when my aunt stopped us short of another river that we came across, she stopped and began to set up a spot to sleep and so I followed suit and went straight to sleep feeling drained from all the moving around, the running hadn't helped any either.

Eventually I was woken up to the sound of Ume rustling around nearby while I rolled over and stood up, my back was sore from the uneven ground we'd slept on.

Ready to take off again we continued onward heading further, while we were traveling though, this time my aunt kicked up a conversation about my sword skills and how we could improve my speed and all that, most of what she was suggesting came down to either trying the training in armour or giving me heavier weights and clothing to wear and just force me to adapt to her speed. I was kind of leaning toward the idea more She talked about it and explained everything to me. It was just like talking with my uncle all over again when he and dad were constructing our routine that has since fallen apart due to Ume taking me like this off on our little fishing trip as she called it. I suppose I should probably be annoyed that all this happened, but I don't think I care about it seeing as I've gotten training out of it anyway so it's not like I lost out on much aside from jutsu training.

I was worried for my team though, I wasn't really sure how Sasuke was handling everything and Hinata was pretty closed off at times as well so it was hard to know if they were completely truthful with me about stuff, which sucks because I've been trying my best for so long to be open with them so that we as a team could deal with it all together and prevent shit from going sideways or anything similar happening. I suppose if anything I'm just trying to keep Sasuke from suicidal tasks like going and joining a missing nin because they offer you candy from their car with blacked out windows. Obviously with Hinata it's different and rather that I want her to gain confidence in herself so she's a little more outgoing.

Sensei said that I should probably focus on myself more seeing as there's a lot for me to focus on improving or just little things like that whole memory barrage thing that has literally put me in hospital several times, I understand those things are important or look like it to everyone else, but my circumstances are super weird and confusing as is so I mostly chalk that stuff up to my circumstances being so weird.

**[Scene Break]**

When my Aunt stated that we had arrived, we were still in a forest and as the midday sun rolled around we were walking along a dirt path at which point I noticed some smoke rising above the treeline, it wasn't what I would describe as bad smoke but rather the kind of smoke you'd see from a small cottages fireplace.

A smile rose across Ume's face as we continued on through the woods slowly approaching an opening in which there was a large stone and thatch cottage with a large extension made of wood, under this extension was a forge and a woman with an apron on beating away at metal she pulled from the forge, nearby was a man who was sitting on a stool reading a book and watching the woman smith the metal.

_If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gaze's back_ The quote filled my mind as we got closer and the sounds of metal hitting metal, the sound of grunting and water squealing as the near molten hot steel touched it.

"Hey Mum! Dad!" My Aunt yelled as we got close enough to be seen and see them.

"Ume! How're you? And who's this?" the old man said standing and walking over to meet us.

When we got to one another he dragged me and my Aunt into a tight but careful embrace, as we stepped back after it he wore an enormous grin on his face, after a moment the woman came over as well doing the same. I could only assume they were fairly old and I don't mean because they were likely my grandparents, but because they still had a lot of colour in their hair and they didn't seem all that wrinkled, though my grandmother seemed to have somewhat bronzish copper like skin in terms of colour so I assume she still worked the forge every hour she got. They both had dark hair though my grandfather was more towards brown, when it came to their eyes it was amber for my grandmother and hazel for my grandfather.

We were pulled along and led inside the building to the front/first room of it that acted as a kitchen, living room and dining room. There was a door out of the room that I assumed went into the rest of the house, but I wasn't given a chance to ponder on it much as my grandmother started making tea and my grandfather dipped out of the building to quickly clean up whatever they'd been doing before we had arrived to make a mess of things.

What I did take from watching how Ume acted was that she seemingly hadn't had much interaction with her parents in a fair amount of time, I say this because listened to her have to explain that she had a daughter now and that I was my dads son, though I couldn't tell if it was just my parents and Ume not finding the time to visit or if it had to do with how out of the way the journey was to come here.

After about ten minutes everyone was settled and we were all sitting around a circular wooden table.

"Mum did you get my letter that I sent something like a year ago?" Ume asked, looking at the older woman who's face contorted for a moment trying to remember the contents. My grandmother had since been named Masumune Kyouto, though she had said it was fine for me to call her by name.

"Ah! Yes we did dear, but why didn't you explain who it was for or why the specifications of it were the way they were?" My grandfather who had now been named Koutetsu Kyouto, he had said similarly about my use of his name as it would be simpler.

"Right well I wanted it made for Takezou here because he's become my student and well… I kind of gave him my dojo's Nodachi that you made me for my sixteenth birthday, so I thought you could make him one for the Chunin Exams that the village is doing at the moment since he made it to the final, that and I wanted to get it back from him at some point so this seemed like a great opportunity." My aunt explained as I watched her do so I started thinking about it and thought that I had actually intended on giving it back soon anyway, so this worked out plus I didn't have to pay for a new sword.

I started to zone out of the conversation at this point while they caught up and my Aunt did her best at conversing like a normal person rather than starting a duel to convey thoughts, it wasn't really all that interesting though, mostly if I was brought up by extension of a question being asked I gave answers where I could and otherwise kept quiet as I got used the comfortable air around the house that we hadn't really had when we were at Ume's camping spot.

As I would tune in and out of what they were saying I slowly grew tired as all the energy I had been expanding finally started to catch up to me and I passed out in the chair I was in.

**[Scene Break]**

When I came to it was morning and the sun was rising, I was also really confused because the room I was in seemed to imply an old Japanese style mansion, but I know for a fact that I had fallen asleep in an old cobble cottage. Aside from my confusion my body was also really heavy feeling making it hard to move and even sit up at first, the futon I had seemingly been stuffed into was pretty thin so I assumed my body was just a hell of a lot more fatigued than I had initially thought I was.

It took me a while to get up only to realize I was only wearing my underwear and that left me even more confused as I looked around the room and saw a bundle of clothing sitting next to me, lifting it all to see what it was I found myself holding up a black Kimono with a golden chinese dragon around it as well as a velvet red Obi..

After a few minutes spent putting it one I finally opened the shoji which found me standing on the engawa veranda, looking around I saw a small garden encased by the house/veranda going out to either side and wrapping around it in a large square, the garden itself was large enough to have a tree in it with a small pond next to it.

I was somewhat amazed by it, not really expecting to see it, though I was brought from my thoughts by a voice.

"Imagination is a weapon, those who lack it, will be the first to die" Ume's bright voice said from my left where I hadn't noticed her leaning against the wall, though while I chalk my not seeing her up to not looking at her it also has to do with the fact that there is a bandage covering my left eye.

"Why is that the first words you decided to say to me after I woke up here? Also where the hell are we?" I asked watching her smile get brighter.

"This, this is my childhood home- and or your grandparents home and that room you just came out of was your fathers, actually that Kimono was your mothers though, don't know why it was here but it was in 'Yuki's room so I assume they stayed here for a short period of time before moving to Konoha." The raven haired and amber eyed woman explained yawning afterward. I noticed she was wearing a kimono as well, though hers was a muted lilac colour.

_'I'll ignore the fact that I'm wearing a womans Kimono right now'_

My stomach rumbled before growling something fierce as I could feel the emptiness of my gut get deeper the second, I was starved, I had no clue why though.

"Ugh… I guess I'm pretty hungry then..." y'know it was times like these where I saw my aunt laugh to herself that made it hard for me to see her as my aunt, when for the most part she was probably my closest friend.

"C'mon then." She said turning away and I followed after her.

We walked along the engawa to a door on the other side of the garden that opened up into a room where a hallway led to a room with a kitchen and bar top separating it from the rest of the room where in the middle a low to the ground square table was, the table had four pillows. It was quaint, that's for sure, nice though. It gave a real homely feel off, actually the more I looked at the kitchenette the more I wanted to do some cooking, which if anything concerned me a fair amount. Not that cooking is bad after all I spent so long doing it with mum and helping around with it or even this last week out in the forest, maybe I was just longing to do something that would be normal for once? Who knows.

I didn't need to do any cooking anyway as there was already food laid out for us, my grandparents were sitting on the left side of the table as we walked in as well. I was mostly quiet while we ate, choosing just to enjoy the food rather than get too distracted. It was when I finished though that I noticed a particular thing about Masamune, her skin was bronzed like she'd been in the sun for too long or stood next to an open flame for hours at a time, Koutetsu's skin was similarly bronzed but not nearly as severe. It was at this point I decided to ask them what they did.

"Well I'm a swordsmith, but I do general metal working if I need to." Masamune answered me easily with a bright smile.

"I've made a profession out of sharpening blades and helping them keep their edge." Koutetsu said with a yawn as he started collecting all the dishes and bringing them into the kitchen.

"Oh that's right you mentioned a blade for me yesterday right?" I had forgotten for a moment about that, Ume said she ordered one from them or something.

"Yup, it'll be similar to that sword my daughter gave you, but she asked for very specific dimensions that have become rather clear as to why." the older swordsmith said, it kind of had me intrigued as for what Ume had in mind for my own sword.

"Am I allowed to see it then?" I was eager to see it.

Before I knew it we were out the front door of the mansion and traveling down a dirt path that lead through a forest, we walked it for about twenty odd minutes before there was an opening that lead to the same thatch roofed cottage that we had first arrived at, what I noticed this time around was a large forge that had blades and weapons hanging on racks as well as tools around it.

There were a few blades that reminded me of Ume's Katana and the Nodachi that I should probably return when we get back home, what I mean to say is that the blades were an onyx or dark silvery colour, I couldn't tell if it was chakra conductive or if it was a metal I'd never seen. I also saw a Kusarigama that caught my attention, I had wanted to start learning how to use one a while ago but never really had a chance, as well as that I'd wanted to learn how to use a spear because I thought it would be pretty cool to use one seeing as it would throw people off if I pulled a spear out and pumped it with chakra and threw it. I mean, who wouldn't want to use one, though I suppose it would be like using a bow though wouldn't it? They were both cumbersome to use and would be hard to move around with normally, that's likely why no one uses them then.

Within minutes of our standing around and looking at all the swords Ume challenged me to a duel with two of the finished swords as the Miaodao wasn't completed just yet and we went at it until I ended up with a couple of slashes on me.

**[Scene Break]**

The next day I was with Koutetsu.

I gingerly touched at the bandages wrapped around my forehead that also covered my left eye leaving my field of view significantly lessened, it turned out that Ume hadn't actually slashed my eye itself but rather just above it still on the area of the socket, as well as that there was a single slash across my forehead though it was only maybe three inches across, the other injuries I had were minor and wouldn't scar. Though I suppose at this rate scars were seemingly all I was leaving with, the one on my forehead seemed to compliment the one running the length of my face, or so Ume said after doing up the bandages, she had also made a comment about how it always seemed to be the left side of my face.

"Tell me Takezou, what is strength and what does it mean to you?" Kouetsu asked bringing out the whetstone and other tools for sharpening the many blades around him.

"Strength huh? I- Strength is the power to overcome and is well… your physical ability." He gave me a raised brow.

"You don't sound too confident if your answer, let alone the fact that you don't seem to believe a lick of what you just said." He said back, taking out a blade to work on.

"I-" I cut myself off letting a heavy sigh out. "I'm sorry, I just can't think straight at the moment." I answered trying my best to deflect what he had said.

"Is that so?" He spoke slowly moving with the practiced movements of a master. "Your blade is exhausted… how many has it cut down and what has it been through?" he seemingly asked no one in particular. "Winning or losing battles… there's no profit for the world even if you find out who is stronger." He raised the blade that gave a familiar feeling off about it. "Or rather, you're probably a nuisance to the world." He continued slowly wiping the blade. "You great warriors waving these things around… Hehe… and I'm probably the same for sharpening this blade. No, I'm probably more of a bother."

I watched mesmerized as he continued "The number of souls taken by the blades I've sharpened… must be more than a hundred or two hundred." His eyes closed for a brief moment as though visualizing them all. "I'm probably a really bad guy for it." He said with a sad contempt letting the silence draw out before speaking again. "Takezou… what will you do after all this, will you continue to live a life without purpose or will you die regretting having never figured what it was you wanted from your life?"

It was in that moment my vision filled itself with thoughts of a future I had oft looked for but couldn't begin to see despite how much I searched, the conversation was one sided to a point but at the same time just answering him a little left me feeling like I was properly a part of it. Though I'd only known the man a few days with this conversation it felt like he knew me better than I did myself already.

"I- I don't think I'll die, or live." I said feeling as though despite it being how I felt that it wasn't my own answer but rather me relying on others to give me the answers I couldn't find for myself.

"Choosing a Katana as your world, your whole universe. That alone is not evil, beautiful things are like that." He said not to me any longer but to those who would hear him. "However… No matter how far you go, a Katana is just a Katana. A sharp tool solely for killing" he pressed his thumb into the flat of the blade with a cloth wiping away at the liquid falling from it. "Preserving the life you have given to the blade, this is a thing of beauty. If you forget that, things go downhill." He continued through the sharpening process talking and I listened to what he had to say without question, everything he said sounded so familiar.

After another hour or so of this I finally realized the sword he had was Ume's katana, the one she used to make herself a name with.

I continued to think about what he said, he and Ume had both offered me so much to think about, cracked blades and... well I'm not really sure how to put what Koutetsu said, it made sense but I couldn't explain why even if tried.

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**AN: Catch you a similar time next month with chapter 17 then.**


	17. Arc 4 - Chilly Reception Part 1

**AN: Hey.**

**So the biggest part of Takezou's character as the story continues is probably his contemplation and just moments to himself where he tries to understand himself and others better. Well that and his love for Kenjutsu all the while hating conflict, though I'm pretty sure I've either already brought that up or its going to be coming up soon.**

**Though also his over reliance on other people, that is something that definitely comes up this chapter.**

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**Chapter Title: Skipping a beat because of a nap.**  
**Arc 4 Part 1**

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I was with the old lady today, thing is about Masamune was that apparently she sold her weapons under the name 'Nekyou' because things made by women seemed to be assumed to be worse for some reason so this persona she sold under was presumed to be a well known strong male smith that had their works being sold all over the show. After she had mentioned the name I actually had to stop for a minute because I had seen her Katana's and other blades sell for hundreds of thousands of Ryo at the weapon stores I window shopped at a lot.

Despite this news I was too distracted by my own thoughts as I watched the flames of the Kiln and the sparks that writhed as white hot metal clashed against steel being beaten into shape. Though there was a faint smell of some kind of gas I couldn't pin it though.

What was on my mind was the very big elephant in the room. That being whether or not I continued to be a Shinobi, I hated conflict, but everything we did led to fighting further. I was put in a situation where I had killed people. Sure I didn't need to kill any of them, but it was the easiest option afforded to us as we fought through that forest.

I hate that it came to that.

Why was it that ending the life of another was truly the easiest option? Was it because killing had always been easy it was just a matter of how the situations were dealt with. Though I suppose that all those people we fought had no interest in allowing is to continue living as we saw fit, not the Sound kids, not the Rain kids and not… What was her name? Ken? Kan? Kin? Right yeah Kin. If my memories were intact enough I think she was some lackey of the Snake's, so she probably would've killed me if I hadn't handled it the way I had.

Things like that were too much for me.

People would probably call me fragile if I continued a life like this and didn't get over throwing my guts up whenever I bisected people. There was a reason I did to, I feel like someone like Naruto was too stupid to understand what something like that meant, not to say he doesn't understand the sanctity of Human life.

Funny though isn't it?

I mean that buffoon wants to become Hokage so that people will acknowledge him, but doesn't even realize that the Hokage does nothing but desk work and administrative stuff to keep the Village from falling apart.

One day he's going to get there and all that time he wasted not studying is going to come back and bite him in the ass.

Maybe it's my inner pessimistic cynic showing face and wanting to watch that boy fail, but I honestly couldn't give him my vote of confidence relating to his dream, if anything his journey hasn't even begun as far as I'm concerned on the matter. Though he's doing more than I am at this point isn't he? I mean he has a fucking dream and I can't even manage that much! How am I allowed to sit here and question his dream and try to dismantle it when I can't even put something for myself together that is something more than just the vaguest drive to continue living because I don't want to die.

I don't want to be forgotten… that was something of a trait in a character I remember enjoying the story of long ago. She was terrified of losing herself and forgetting who she was, I almost feel like I'm going through something familiar now. It hadn't come up yet, but I knew it was happening.

There was a time before the Exam when I had forgotten parts of my old life, I didn't make mention of it because for the most part I've been making an effort not to rely on old memories that aren't all that applicable to my situation. The more time passed though that more I've noticed that I'm losing more of these parts of myself and I'm unsure how long things will continue until I'm no longer that person but just Takezou. Sure I wouldn't have had a problem with that, but that's not the only thing, I've begun to notice a very light deterioration in myself. My Aunt brought it up about my hair.

Mum had told me that our chakra was poisonous to ourselves and that I should be weary, which was one of her true reasons for not liking my continued drive further into the path I've chosen that uses a lot of chakra. It was why I was using less of it during the fishing/camping portion of this trip, but the problem is that from what I understand about my Kekkei Genkai is that my constant use of chakra has basically set me on a course of weathering it all out.

There isn't much that I can do aside from limiting my use of it, it's why Mum was the way she was. She may know how to use chakra and all but uses it at a very limited rate and only enough to keep her Tenketsu from being overcharged as was.

Why my thoughts were the most active when considering my existential problems I didn't know. Maybe it was just the way that I dealt with it, but who knows I sure as hell didn't. It's not like having people around me discussing these philosophies that only push me further into trying to understand what I want and seek from all this.

Koutetsu made a point about his sharpened swords, sure, but the problem came when the more I thought about it the more I felt like his line of work was one I might consider. Though I've always had options, Ume's always asked me about whether or not I wanted to take over as an instructor at her dojo in a few years, I had considered it. If I did go with that I would be able to continue my pursuit of the sword and enjoying that as well as getting to as I pleased.

Mum had suggested I become a chief or open some kind of stall where I got to cook as much as I wanted, which again I seriously considered. Dad wasn't too sure but just said I should go until something finds me rather than me finding it. Uncle Toyo and Aunty Rei had once asked me about my commitment to being a Ninja, and that was fair, Rei was an ANBU? and Toyo took his love for the village very seriously so my flippant behavior was probably some cause for worry.

I was drawn away from my thoughts when the world around me seemed to become engulfed in flames, I fell backwards out of the way of the scorching rays of heat and fire as my back and head impacted on the coarse ground.

**[Scene Break]**

When my eyes opened again I was staring at a familiar ceiling.

Time passed unimpeded by my lack of movement and sluggish heavy feeling body that laid resting on a bed.

I hadn't turned my head in all the time that I had been staring at the ceiling, when I finally looked to my left as per usual my mother's head of hair was resting on the side of the bed, she was kneeling on the floor. Kaede's soft breathing reached my ears informing me she was asleep.

I probably should've been concerned that I was home again and that the last thing I remembered was an explosion, but all I could do is smile like some idiot.

She was here again.

Back at my side.

Always pushing herself for our sake.

She never left us on our own.

Always striving to uphold a safe haven to return to.

Never have I considered her love and compassion overbearing.

I don't think I could've asked for a better mother really.

My face began to sting and a pain that had been subsided up until this point rose as the feeling flashed through me. The sound of my clenched teeth grinding seemed to make her stir from her slumber.

Her blue eyes flashed open catching my amber, worry crossed Kaede's face as she realized how pained I was from just the simple glance at my eyes.

"Takezou!" she called alarmed at my disposition.

"M-morn… ing- Mu- m" I grunted out clenching my fists as the pain reached unbearable levels.

I blacked out again.

The next time I woke up, there wasn't any pain, but rather the same heaviness as before and the feeling that there was another person's presence in the room. Gazing around the room again my eyes fell upon Mum and Akatsuki, my sister was sitting at the end of my bed playing with mums hair while she was resting against the bed again.

I decided to take more initiative this time and tried to sit up finding that my body ached some, the problems this time weren't damage related but rather the calendar on my wall which was currently marked off as being several days passed the date of the One on One round of the Chuunin Exam.

Before I could collect myself properly I blurted out "What- the fuck..."

Without warning 'Tsuki launched herself at me knocking Kaede at the same time getting her attention while I was sitting up, I fell back under my sisters excited tackle. Pulling myself back up again and reciprocating my sisters hug Mum watched me for a moment before embracing the both of us.

"Takezou, how many times do I need to remind you not to get hurt?" She said ignoring everything else in favour of the normal routine she and I went through whenever I woke up in hospital.

"Enough that this is a recurring conversation." I answered back with what little a smile I could muster.

Sighing for a moment before she continued Mum put her hand to her cheek "I'm just glad you're safe for now, your grandparents' home didn't fare nearly as well." she paused a moment. "I'd still like to know where you got those scars..." Kaede trailed off looking at my face and what I assumed were the boar's tusk scar and the one from dueling with my Aunt.

I cleared my throat before speaking, making sure I had mum's attention "So what happened exactly?"

She turned back to me garnering a more serious expression "I'm not sure about the details just what your Aunt told me when she came back with you and your father's parents." She moved to sit down on the end of my bed. "From what everyone thinks happened something caused the forge and kiln to explode nearly killing your grandmother and her apprentices that had been with her at the time and seriously injuring you. Though you got out of it with only serious burns and bruising as well as a broken arm."

"Really?" I couldn't believe it. Had that really happened while I was distracted in my thoughts?

"Mm… Koutetsu thinks that it had to do with the volatile nature of the materials that had been in the workshop at the time as well as the metals they were using. Something about a gas of some kind… I don't remember exactly what was said, that was a while ago now."

Taking a moment to think about it all and letting my sister go as she began squirming in my arms, I watched as she left the room looking back and Mum and me like she wanted to say something but decided not to.

"So I guess I missed the exam then?" I asked going back to what was kind of an important part of my recent life.

"The what- oh!" Mum looked more than a little surprised about what I asked. "I completely forgot… Takezou. Takezou the exams were two months ago, the village has been rebuilding itself since then." I watched her in silence trying to understand what she was saying. "The sand village decided to invade Konoha in the middle of the exam and during it their Jinchuriki blew up, not to mention that snake creep killed the Hokage."

"I… uh… what?" I had been out that long? I missed the exam… I had spent a fair amount of time training myself up for that, but I've been shafted by life and I didn't even get a chance to use it.

I felt useless.

What of my team?

Where were they right now?

My thoughts were cut off by Mum's hand shaking my shoulder. "Take- Takezou?"

"Ah… yeah sorry, it's just a lot of information… the Hokage is dead then?"

"He is yes. Though a new woman took over being Hokage just a week or so ago, I can't remember her name for the life of me though." Kaede scratched her head trying to remember it. "Oh! That reminds me your teammates both got out of hospital recently as well!" she said somewhat cheerily.

"Huh? What do you mean by both? Last I remember Hinata was the only one in there what happened?" everything had overwhelmed me so much that I couldn't muster any more surprise in my voice at this point.

"Hinata got hospitalized again during the invasion and right after she got out the Uchiha boy's older brother showed up and he went to go and attack him from what your teacher said, during it though the Hyuuga girl tried to protect him and both of them ended up back in hospital after the incident." she explained.

I was over all this. I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up somewhere that wasn't here right now… this was too much. Hinata and Sasuke both attacked Itachi then?

"It looks like you could still use some rest though so why don't you go back to sleep and I'll get your father to come get you when dinner is ready a few hours from now?" Mum said and all I could do was nod in agreement. Sleep sounded good after all this.

Really I was just glad I woke up in my room and not the hospital.

**[Scene Break]**

I got a good look at myself in a mirror the next day, the scar that went from top to bottom on my face was pretty noticeable along with the one that went just above my eye, most apparent though was a patch on the left side of my neck that spread onto my shoulder that was where my skin had been charred by the blast. My forearms were in a similar state, I guess I had used them to cover my face without thinking about it and so they were damaged in my stead.

The more I had looked at them the more I realized it wasn't normal was it? I had scars all over the place that would be there forever. I was only thirteen and I effectively had these for life.

I didn't spend long looking at my face of course, because- well it's not like there is much to look at.

After though I did decide that I'd spend my day around home seeing as I was still recovering from something I don't even remember happening and just generally trying to come to terms with the fact that the two of the biggest events that I had subsequently been training for had passed and I was missing in action for them. Effectively dead to the world. It annoyed me, but at the same time I was glad I didn't have to put myself through either of those situations. Just thinking about participating in a battle against a tailed beast made me want to curl up into a ball and cry let alone someone like Itachi whose bingo book page made a tailed beast's very existence look cute.

Though I was a little sad about it If I remember correctly his partner or the guy he traveled with was like one of the seven ninja swordsmen from the mist, so I would have at least liked to meet him. But alas I'll have to wait until another time they decide to show face.

I was sitting out the back of the house on the veranda that wrapped itself around the house, Dad was at work and the only people around were Mum, my sister, Aunty Rei, Aunty Ume, Kari and Asami the last two being Mums long time friends who didn't come over all that often- aside from that all of the mothers had their children over. It was a play date if you couldn't have guessed, my nieces were too young to be at school or preschool while Akatsuki hadn't entered any yet in favor of my Mum making use of her teaching skills she picked up from part time work at one of the nearby civilian schools.

They were all in the yard, or well the kids were, they were playing some game I didn't recognize. Not that I played games growing up now that I think about it, I spent all my time learning and training, I never really had any room for it, I suppose that's why I didn't have any friends outside of my team. Though that's partially because I constantly verbally attacked Ino and her little troupe of sheep. That reminds me… the last time I saw her or Sakura for that matter was during the exam, I didn't normally hate people, and those two I definitely didn't. It was just a matter of circumstance and my built up feelings at that point.

a sigh escaped me.

"You sigh like a servant girl in love with her Lord." the familiar voice of Ume said from my right where she was drinking water from a glass with a grin like a child.

"I suppose I might do yes." was all I cared to respond, trying to keep my thoughts back to the matter at hand. I was considering apologizing to Sakura particularly because I did kind of feel bad about it, but at the same time she had the gall at the time to speak to me in a tone that suggested that I was the heathen touching her relic.

"Y'know I might actually start to think you're in love with someone if you keep sighing like that." another comment passed by me and I honestly thought it was funny.

"I doubt it, I was sighing because of the situation I find myself in." I answered her after I had laughed at her joke.

"What did you get a girl pregnant while no one was looking?" I could hear my mother and Rei actually spit what they were drinking out at that comment.

Things like that being said made me glad that Mums friends weren't within hearing distance or at the least they weren't paying attention to our conversation, after all Mums friends were civilians and didn't really take the sort of comedy Ume and I used all well. I can still remember the first time they met Ume and I, we had just come home from Kenjutsu training and it was the day she had pierced my shoulder with a sword, I thought it was funny and Ume was cowering but still kind of laughing while they were horrified.

"No, I haven't gotten some girl pregnant, and no there won't be any 'mini me's' running around." I paused before continuing while I watched the three mothers laugh about it. "I was actually thinking about… about how I threatened to butcher a girl from my academy class and said that no one would care whether or not she continued to breathe just because she had the gall to tell me off for preventing Sasuke from killing everybody he could get his hands on." the tone shift seemed to have slapped them all.

It was Aunty Rei who spoke up first. "I hope there is more to this story, I know that your team was attacked by that freak during the Exam wasn't he? Was this after that?"

Clearing my throat continued "Uh yeah, we were all half dead after what happened with the trouser snake, we had been jumped while Hinata was on watch when we had stopped to rest, we dealt with one or two people before Sasuke flipped out due to some seal the snake put on him that made him stronger, faster and more angry." I took a second to remember back to the forest. "Sasuke needed to be stopped before he turned onto someone else which was when this kid in green showed up and tried to challenge him- he had already tried but I had turned us away before then, other than that right I used the Nodachi's sheath to knock Sasuke out at which point this pink haired girl showed up and I had at that point been considering ditching the exam and failing it so that I could get my team to safety and threatened her like I said." I noticed that Ume and Mum had gone off to do something leaving me with Rei.

"And anything more? Was it your true feelings or was it in the heat of the moment from the tension?" Rei asked in a rare moment of interest directed at my life.

"I suppose they were actually my thoughts and I don't actually regret saying it, but I guess it's because I never really had a good standing with the rest of my class so making it worse is something I want to repair." I'd thought about this before.

"Yeah, but you don't want to actually give them that do you? From what I know you don't seem to actually care what others think about you… that's why you are doing anything to hide or cover up all those cracks on your blade right?" for a moment while Rei was speaking I had remembered hearing a similar quote once before.

"Mm… I think I don't know what I'm doing anymore… I'm only thirteen or fourteen and yet here I am considering things like someone two decades older… I think I'll just leave it as is for now and settle for resting and whatnot." I heard the sounds of footsteps as my Aunt made a sound of agreement before patting my head as she walked over to the kids.

While we were talking I watched as Kari and Asami left with their children who were still unnamed to me, though that was because I never really went out of my way to ask.

"Well at least you aren't sleeping around and making Hinata and I do all the work then." Sasuke's voice said, drawing my attention to the door that led into the house, Mum was beaming from behind him.

"I'm glad you're here Sasuke! I'll make you your onigiri!" I was pretty sure she didn't do that normally when my team came over.

"Are you stealing my family or becoming a Rakurai?" I asked, watching the pale dark haired boy.

Ignoring my comment with a roll of his eyes he spoke. "I thought Sensei said to stop being depressed otherwise you'd end up with deeper stress lines?" he said with a smirk looking at the actual stress marks on my face as well as the scars.

"Nah I'm too much of a worry wort and old man to do that." I joked back with a smile. It was nice to see him again, and looking happy for the most part anyway.

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**AN: If I'm honest then I think AVID is finished, currently where I've written up to is right before Naruto gets back to the village and I'm just not sure how I want to continue the story after that so I'll probably just be posting the chapters week to week until its all out. At that point though the story will be complete until further notice though it might get occasional OVA like chapters if I don't make a separate story to post those.**


	18. Arc 4 - Chilly Reception Part 2

**AN: A new arc begins and it has some of my favourite parts that I've written so far in it, mostly up to the fact that I felt like I got to explore Takezou in a way I enjoyed doing, hopefully you will too.**

**Things are moving pretty quickly and I get that, though its not helped by the fact that I scrapped the original versions where Take came back and was around for the Itachi thing, in it he actually met them like hours beforehand and all- didn't recognize them yada yada, but thats behind the story now seeing as I chose to go this route. not to mention though that the forest section with Ume was originally like two chapters longer before they met his grandparents.****Point is that uh I'm still getting used to writing pacing properly hopefully it gets better as things go on, though I do wish I could've written the next few chapters somewhat longer, but because of the arc they cover it was quite hard for me to do so.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Two ****Betrayals**  
**Arc 4 - Part 2**

* * *

"So how did you know?" Sasuke asked, having sat down next to me after Mum came back with the Onigiri and a few other things.

"Know what? You'll have to be more specific, plus I want to ask something next then." I replied having my suspicions as to what he meant.

"You knew about that creep and my brother didn't you, it was in that book I read in the forest." He didn't even ask, it was a statement of fact.

"I had my suspicions and all, but no I didn't know for certain." I said he looked at me expectantly. "For the snake, I noticed he was there at the start of the second exam and so I wrote it down quickly. As for your brother though that was a working theory I had."

"Well hurry up and tell me then!" he raised his voice, eyes narrowing.

"Well I don't know the details to- to what happened and all… but I had started to think about it not too long after we became a team because I assumed we'd end up having a run in with Itachi at some point. What it boiled down to was that Lord Third must have stopped your brother that night making him stop before he decided to continue onto the rest of the village or whatever." I paused to see if he was following, the only sign he gave me was a short nod.

"Right. So if Lord Third was what was keeping him from coming back and then he died during the final of the exam, so that meant he was no longer in the village to protect you or anyone else. From what my mum told me he showed up after the Hokage died and attacked you right? So that's been my theory and it's basically been confirmed by that. Unless you have anything to add that I'm mis-" he cut me off.

His voice was heavy and his expression had become dark.

"You're wrong."

"Well its only a-"

"_Shut up_! You're wrong because that _**monster**_ didn't stop because of the hokage, he stopped to leave me alive to test himself..." the seething in his voice had grown. "He murdered our entire family- _to test himself!_" he growled out.

His fists were clenched so tight that his nails were drawing blood.

"Hey uh..." I really didn't know how to deal with this.

It seemed I didn't have to as I was saved by the bell, in a manner of speaking.

"You boys doing okay?" Mum said coming back out to where we were. "Oh! Sasuke!" She quickly grabbed his hands, opened them and seeing the marks stood him up and dragged him off to clean up the blood and treat him. I followed after her.

"Uh Mum I think his hands are wrapped enough." I commented watching as she seemed to realize she had wound the bandage into what were nearly balls around Sasuke's palms. He looked- well he looked like he wanted to be angry but really didn't want to cause problems for Kaede as she fretted over him.

"And what's with the rest of these scars on your arms and hands?" She questioned him "You're nearly as bad as my son! You boys need to remember to slow down some time, yes?"

I watched Sasuke become resigned to her and his shoulders slumped. "Sure."

It was funny really, I'd seen her do something similar to Hinata a while ago when the poor girl was bruised from something. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that my parents see them as an extension of their children as well and treat them as such. It was warming Sasuke's heart and I could see it, Hinata always looked like she longed for something similar once she got back home whenever it all happened, hell Kaede asked Sasuke after the first month of the team being together if he wanted her to adopt him. He had turned it down, but mum has made an effort to otherwise see the two of them as her kids, Dad talks to Sensei like they're best friends or brothers so It wasn't like it wasn't being shared.

Not long after Mum finished up Sasuke and I spent the rest of the time he was over talking about less strenuous topics, as time passed into the afternoon Sasuke went home and I was left to sit around the house doing nothing.

I wasn't sure how well my explanation would go over with him, but it sounded reasonable enough, it's not like I can remember much of what actually happened anyway.

**[Scene Break]**

My eyes snapped open and a silent scream caught itself in my throat as I sat up in my bed with a sigh, the room was still pitch black and the only light I could make out was a glimpse at the moonlight through my curtains, quietly I got out of bed and walked across my room to the large windows that overlooked our backyard, opening the curtains I looked out into the dark starry sky as the full moon hung up high watching the world.

I unlocked the window and pushed it open so the light breeze that smelt of pine and similar forestry smells wafted through my room, I rested my folded arms on the window frame and watched the sky and moon for a while, I'm not really sure how long but it was definitely a while, I also started feeling a little melancholic if forlorn as I stood leaning out the window like I did. There was a familiarity to it. At the very least I knew I enjoyed this moment a lot, it felt nice to stop and watch the world move, not let myself be bogged down by all my thoughts and stuff for a while, just to focus on the moon's light as incandescent as it was.

I moved over to my bed and sat on the end I sat silently thinking and relaxing, just letting my thoughts run a little wild before raining them back in.

Eventually I got tired again and I fell asleep as I fell onto my bed.

When I finally woke, I felt a slight shiver run through me from a cool breeze and I realized the window was still open. I was only wearing underwear so it was bound to happen, after all the constant summer that the Land of Fire lives in makes it hard to wear much clothing to bed.

I heard happy giggling and soft thumps followed by gurgled talking of a child, my door opened and I was still lying face down into my pillow as I felt cool hands put themselves on my right arm before I was rolled over to see Mum and then Akatsuki rolling on my bed bubbling out bits and pieces of vaguely coherent Japanese. Mum gave me a smile as she leaned back and spoke "Takezou look after your sister for an hour for me while I go out and get groceries." She said before leaving my little sister to crawl over me for a bit, until she finally settled and fell asleep in the nook of my arm under the sheets.

Today was going to be a good slow day, I could tell already just from what had happened.

For a moment as I lay silently with Akatsuki still tucked into my side, an image passed through my mind, _it was that of a katana being flung up into the sky spinning up and the sunlight reflecting off the blade as it fell back to the earth and landed with the tip digging into muddy snow covered earth that had been churned up, the image held itself in my mind as the hilt of the sword stuck out in the open on a field of corpses covered in mud, dirt and blood, chunks of flesh chopped off laying apart from bodies._

I've no clue why it flashed through my mind, but I was hoping upon all things celestial that it wasn't some kind of vision of what I was to experience.

my thought was cut off as I heard the sounds of a broadcaster on the radio "With Lady Tsunade's return to Konoha she's taken up the position of the fifth Hokage! She has said that as one of her first acts as Lady Hokage she is going to refurbish and update Kohona General Hospital and the other clinics around the village." The voice droned on about some other changes our new figure head was making before moving onto the weather.

I've yet to meet our illustrious new Hokage yet, but from what Asuma said we might be getting called into her office soon to discuss the Chuunin Exams, so there was that to look forward to, I guess. Naruto had gotten back with the two Sannin about a week before i woke, but Tsunade's coronation wasn't until a few days ago so she hadn't had much a chance to do anything Hokage related beyond paperwork by the sounds of it, the hospital thing is cool though it'd be nice if they changed the ceiling colour to really throw people off when they blacked out and woke up there. Maybe I should start writing a book about hospital ceilings if I'm going to continue to end up there as often as I do.

I probably could've stayed in bed all day and slept, and at some point I must've done as much because 'Tsuki started babbling and saying what she could while hitting me until I woke, I checked the time on the clock in my room and it read '12:47pm'. Seeing that I pulled myself from the sheets of my bed letting my sister climb into them and start playing while I went and grabbed a pair of tan pants, a grey t-shirt and my shinobi sandals then headed into the bathroom to have a shower and clean up.

After I showered and made lunch for myself and Akatsuki before going and setting her on Dad who was in his study, I grabbed the Nodachi that Ume gave to me and I headed to her house so I could finally return it and start using my new sword. While I walked towards Aunty Ume's house, I heard someone calling my name and I turned around to see the familiar hair of my Hyuuga teammate running toward me and making her way through the somewhat crowded street, she stopped once she got to me and spoke.

"T-takezou! I-I finally found y-you!" Hinata said as I looked at her expectantly.

**[Scene Break]**

With nearly another two weeks passing I came to a conclusion.

I missed my birthday because of all the commotion going on, now that I think back on it, that party we had a few days after I woke was probably actually for my birthday. I was… thirteen or fourteen…? I'll be honest and say I'm not sure how old I am exactly, all I know is that I am in my early teens. Anyway, my age and birthday are unimportant at the moment. though its not like my parents ever actually said how old I was... had they forgotten?

Originally I was on my way to meet up with the rest of my team so we could go and get a C-Rank done, I was wearing my mission gear, that being a dark grey long-sleeved shirt, navy blue shozoku pants, the maroon samurai style greaves and bracers, along with the open toed ninja sandals and my red Haori. I hadn't brought my sword because I didn't think we were supposed to be doing anything that might require it, I could always run home and grab it even if I did need it.

I ended up taking a scenic route along the way and walked by a group of ten or so people doing Kyudo? I think it was called. I noticed a girl with them that had violet hair standing with one of the large bows, she drew an arrow and lined up her shot before letting it fly and striking dead on the middle of the target impressing the people around her and myself, the girl seemed to have a faint blush at the praise she was getting from her fellow archers. I hopped down from the roof I was on and went in through the front door of the building, like a normal person.

I walked over toward the archers and leaned on the wall of the range watching them go through the exercises, it was enjoyable to watch them do it. It had been so long since I last held a bow that I had the urge to join in. After a while of watching and contemplating I walked over getting the attention of a few people who turned to me, one in particular an older guy, he had graying hair and hazel eyes he walked up to me and spoke holding his hand out for me to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you boy, what brings a Shinobi like yourself here to watch us?" He asked as I shook his hand back, I noticed he stood a few inches taller than myself as well as that everything about the way he carried himself was relaxed and calm, it was a nice change of pace from all the jumpy Ninja that I frequented with.

"It's nice to meet you too, I'm Takezou, the reason I'm here anyway is I was walking by and saw you all practicing, it caught my attention so I stayed to watch. Sorry if I'm distracting anyone." I apologized with a deep bow, when a hand landed on my shoulder I looked up and the man was smiling sincerely.

"Don't worry about that Takezou, it's just nice to see someone like yourself who can do all those fancy Ninja tricks taking interest in such a patient and slow martial art, it's much slower than using a sword so most if not all Shinobi I've met pass it off as a useless or boring skill to have under their belts. Anyway, my name is Suichirou Yosuke." He gave me a smile as he began leading me through the area that was behind the platform the archers were firing from.

"By the way how did you know I was a shinobi?" I questioned, its not like I dressed like your average Ninja.

"Well your footsteps are silent and Shinobi often have an air about them that you have a very subtle version of." he answered.

"So… would it be alright if I started learning Kyujutsu from you?" I asked as we came to stand behind the purple haired girl I had been watching.

"Of course, I'm more than happy to take on more students with how few people are interested as is!" he said with a bright smile slapping my back with a chuckle. "If you're eager to start then I can get my granddaughter Yumi here to help you start with some basics?" he gestured to the violet haired girl now named as Yumi, she turned to us setting the bow down and giving a smile.

"I'm Yumi, it's nice to make your acquaintance." We shook hands as she introduced herself.

"I'm Takezou Rakurai, glad to meet you to Yumi." I replied before she started giving me a short and quick overview of Kyudo and some of the philosophies that were ingrained in it and somewhat required to be known when dealing with it.

Yumi ran me through some simple exercises for it as well and they took an hour in of themselves, by the time we were done with everything and I was getting to a point where I was ready to start using the bow, it was late afternoon and the sky was orange as the sun was slowly descending. I left happy and wanting to go back and continue learning when Asuma appeared out of nowhere on the side of a street with his brow arched as though beckoning me over to him. I walked over and stopped in front of him as he shook his head then spoke.

"You know, just because you don't want to be a chuunin that doesn't mean you can choose when you show up and do missions with us, it's really annoying when we're waiting around for an hour for you to show up so we can go on the C-rank we were supposed to do." He didn't sound all that annoyed all things considered, though to be fair I felt really bad about the whole thing seeing as it was me who forgot.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I forgot about it and ended up staying at Yosuke Archery Club the entire day, I mean I'm only sorry that I forgot 'cause I don't regret learning something new like that, I really enjoyed what I did and I'm probably going to be learning it in tandem with what I do with my Aunt when I have the time for either." I said as we walked, Sensei nodded understanding what I meant. Neither of us said anything until we were outside my house.

**[Scene Break]**

When I got back home Mum sat me down and said she had something she wanted to talk to me about.

"Did I ever tell you about the time our Kekkei Genkai made me snap?" she asked, looking at me while I sat across from her in the living room.

"No, you've only told us about what happened to your parents..."

"Well… guess now is as good a time as ever then isn't it?" Mum gave a short hollow laugh. "Around I had been considering moving out of the Land of Lightning I had this instance where I remembered going to sleep one night and having a horrible nightmare where I kept attacking and fighting people- all I could feel was blood lust and the longer it went on the worse that feeling got." Kaede normally gave off the air of a warm person that would always smile but while she talked about this she looked cold and distant.

"I can see how thats..."

"Mm. it wasn't fun, I hated it." the firm cold way she spoke unsettled me, I had never seen her like this...

"So what happened?" I prompted her to continue, she took a moment to drink from a cup of tea she had.

"When I woke up my parents house… or what was left of it was in shambles, it had already been trashed from what happened with them and when I woke up it looked like what happened to them had repeated, but seeing as I was the only person left there… I knew it was me." her voice had become strained while remembering the scene.

"Gratefully for me I met your father not too long after that and he saved me from doing something I might have regretted..." her eyes cast themselves downward at the underside of her wrists that had scarring on them from being cut.

It was at times like these when I felt like I knew nothing of the people in my life, from my parents and their family to my teammates- I never knew when something would happen and they might just do something that makes my view of them shatter.

Before I left to go to my room and think about it all Mum hugged me as tight as she could reminding me that the reason she did that so often was because she was terrified of losing it all again. I couldn't imagine what that would be like.

**[Scene Break]**

He was gone

And half of our academy class was in the hospital and I was at home with my family while my team got themselves hospitalized or made themselves enemies of the state.

Sasuke had left.

fuck.

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**AN: So there's now a secondary story up on my page that I started for AVID that I wanted to use for writing about side stories and characters, but its mostly just a way for me to play around with writing other characters in the story I wanted to explore better- though they aren't required to be read or anything like that.  
**  
**Anyway see you later.**


	19. Arc 4 - Chilly Reception Part 3

**AN: So this chapter is the start of the main part of this arc i.e the land of snow movie and I would suggest you watch that beforehand if you hadn't already because this next few chapters certainly goes off the basis or assumption that you've seen it.**

**Otherwise really it was just another chance to explore how Takezou fights seeing as he spends so much time thinking and talking but there's so few actual combat sequence's I wanted to explore how he really fights.**

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**Chapter Title: The Blizzard Among Other Things**  
**Arc 4 Part 3**

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I found out nearly a week after that he had been contacted by a group of Orochimaru's goons. No one had told me solely because I was recovering from a coma and 'wasn't fit for combat' and that made me mad. In fact in the short interaction I was given with the Hokage I had said it was a load of shit and that I was fully capable of fighting.

She threatened to court martial me and put me back in hospital with more broken bones.

Hinata was on the mission to see about saving our black haired moron from something stupid, aside from her there was team 7, 8 and Hinata's cousins team. Naruto had been at the forefront of wanting to save the moron from himself and getting dragged into something we should have been able to keep from.

I hated that it had still come to this, especially because I had only remembered about what happened after the fact. Months if not years was suddenly down the drain. Sasuke had been pushed to go even in the stead of my advances to deepen our friendship and give him something that would tie him to us.

It was a slap in the face like no other.

What had made it hurt more was that the bastard had visited my house the night he left, I had been up and was admiring the sword my grandparents had made for me, they had managed to pick it out of the rubble of their destroyed forge. Sasuke had come through my window, or rather my window was open and he came to lean in through it, we talked for a while and I didn't ask him why he was there, nor had I thought it weird at the time.

But now I felt like a fool.

The day I was called into the Hokage's office had actually been the first interaction I had with the woman, and it just so happened to be that she was informing Sensei and me about what had happened. That Naruto had run into the ass as he was leaving, Sasuke had gotten into a fight with him and once he managed to make Sasuke slip up and mention what was happening Naruto headed for the tower after losing initially.

Like I said though, I lashed out at the woman, Sensei had to take me out because Sasuke was my brother as far as my thoughts were concerned so losing him like this got to me. I was feeling betrayed and like a switch had been flicked on in my head that just wanted for me to lash out and attack something, but being dragged out by sensei helped calm it some. There wasn't anything I could do, it's not like I knew where he was, it wasn't like I would join the lunatic just to see Sasuke again.

It finally started to feel like I had a reason to stop being a shinobi, but seeing Hinata distraught about not being enough to get him back killed me. So I found what resolve I had left and decided to at least continue doing this for another couple of years.

Along with everything else I found out that Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji and Sakura had become chuunin from the exam, somehow. Hinata had gotten a field promotion as well as Neji. it was something I hadn't really even thought about, I stopped caring for the jacket back in the middle of the forest, but it was more a matter of personal achievement that I felt like I had missed out on.

Everything was certainly going to hell fast.

Not to mention the fact that Dad was going to be getting a new arm soon- He told me about it and showed me a blueprint that his parents had made up with their assistants who they had hired once they settled down in the village. After all they didn't want to have what happened happen again, losing one workshop to negligence was bad enough so the assistants were supposed to help with basically everything except blade sharpening and the main part of forging bits, the arm he showed me was… well I nearly fell over with how much detail it had.

It was something I would have never expected in this world.

**[Scene Break]**

About a month after the Sasuke incident I was now officially cleared from medical leave and was allowed to continue doing missions where I wanted to.

That's when I was told I needed to pack for a trip to the land of snow of all places. It felt like I didn't have anytime to get over what happened when I was thrust into a mission.

Dad was the one who helped me go shopping for clothes and gear, I bought a fur lined tan cloak and then these cool bracelets that dispensed ninja wire from them, I think the total length of wire was ten meters.

So when I was brought to where team seven was with an entourage of film crew on a dock I was wearing black pants and boots I had found, a grey long sleeved shirt, crimson samurai like bracers and greaves, I had my red haori on with it done up while I had a shuriken pouch on my left thigh and then two kunai pouches on either side of my abdomen under the Haori. Along with all that I had my new sword on my back, it was called a Miaodao from what I was told, the cloak was stuffed into a bag that was also on my back.

Ever since I woke up though my left eye was playing up so to say, like the colour was dimmer in everything when I closed my right eye, I wasn't sure if I should do something about it, but aside from things seeming greyer in comparison to what I saw from my right eye it seemed fine.

"You think people might mistake you for a local?" Kakashi asked as I stood next to him watching Naruto try to fawn all over the main actress we were here for while she did her best to make him leave her alone.

"Could do, shouldn't we be more worried about that woman's attitude rather than the likelihood that I'm carted away because I'm mistaken for someone's son?" I replied turning my head to the man of whom I was catching up to in height.

"Mah" He shrugged his shoulders as the director began getting everyone to board the ship we were going to be taking to the land of snow. I was excited to see snow if I was honest, it felt like a millennia since I had seen it and it wasn't like it snowed in the land of fire all that often.

Things had been bad this last month, Hinata was still in the hospital and most of team 8 was as well, Neji's team was pretty fucked up as well. Not to mention the fact that I had a run in with the kids from Suna that breezed through the Chuunin Exam. The guy that dressed in all black and face paint actually came up to me and started a chat, which was a little weird but otherwise he was enjoyable to talk to.

From what Kankuro had said to me his brother and sister helped out by keeping everyone from dying on the Sasuke rescue mission. I thanked them obviously, Kankuro took it in stride and said I owed him, Temari said it was fine and Gaara said 'anything for Naruto' and it was kinda creepy.

A few hours down the line while I was on my own thinking about crap.

I was drawn away from my thoughts as one of our employers approached me, I had decided to rest on my own out of everyone's way. My back was against the wall of the ship's cabin as I sat with my knees up and my sword leaning against my left shoulder. He was a shorter guy, dark hair and dressed for the cold weather we were sailing through at the moment. The way he looked at me immediately made me realize he wasn't about to get to know me, he was going to try ask for something stupid.

"Hello mister Shinobi! I had something I wanted to ask of you!" his smile was that of a hungry predator that had just found his victim.

Before he could ask me anything I responded by cutting him off. "No." I didn't want to deal with this shit.

"But mister Shinobi! You haven't even heard my proposal!" he sounded offended.

"I'm here to help team seven with security, we're bodyguards not actors." I said stiffly as I pulled the hood on my cloak over my head and ignored the man as he began to fume before deflating and walking away after that though I heard what sounded like Naruto making noise and Sakura arguing with him.

Who'd have thought though, traveling over the ocean made for abcolutely beautiful weather and also gods fucking awful weather that was colder than anything you've ever thought possible. It was so damn wishy washy that the film crew were all over the place to try get scenes of the movie done when it was clear let alone when they could force that Yukie woman to actually work.

My nap was cut short when I heard yelling about docking the ship, when I got up and actually started moving around I realized that we were up against a huge glacier.

This was going to be a long day. I could tell.

Kiba ended up coming and grabbing me so that Kakashi could give us a briefing about where we should be and all while they filmed on the iceberg. I probably would've gone back to sleep if not for the occasional uncomfortable looks Sakura sent my way or how Naruto looked like a wounded dog whenever he thought I wasn't paying attention and he was looking at me. Those two were so worried about things that it was probably going to end up getting them hurt. I could understand Sakura's disposition considering what I had said, but I had no clue why Naruto was so iffy, maybe he felt like shit because of Sasuke?

Which was somewhat a sore topic for me still, I had a fair few instances where I had gone to either see him or acknowledge him only to find he wasn't around. It stung for sure, but we were on a mission to a different country so I had no intention of letting it get in my way while we did our job.

**[Scene Break]**

We had been on this ice rock for an hour or two already, I was sitting on one of the many crates that were filled with equipment or props and other stuff they brought along.

Ugh, I felt a shiver go down my spine from how cold it was. I took a moment to tighten the boots I was wearing as well as my bracers and greaves, my haori was blowing in the wind along with my cloak. Sure I was using my chakra to regulate my temperature and all, but its still a fucking cold place, who'd have thought the Land of _Snow_ was a little chilly?

Pulling my sword out of its sheath I looked it over, it was the same onyx like dark steel that the Nodachi my aunt lent me was, though I had looked into Miaodao's they seemed to be more chinese weapons that were used kinda like polearms. But my grandparents had made this blade for cutting through people rather than poking them to death, the blade was thick probably a centimeter or so, and the width of the blade was similar to a Nodachi's, thing looked like it was ready to behead a horse, not to mention the actual blade itself was as tall as Sakura while the handle added an extra foot and a half to it.

There was an explosion that knocked me off the crates onto the ground.

I heard Kakashi say "You?" as he moved to protect the actors.

Team seven had begun to mobilize as another voice from far above us on the glacier announced loudly "Welcome to the land of snow!"

By the time I got up I was already pushing enough chakra into the sword to destroy a building as it rested on my shoulder while I charged forward, seeing who was attacking us. Three people, or that's what I spotted anyway, a large guy with dark hair, a woman with pink hair and a weird headpiece that I couldn't understand and lastly a guy with light violet hair. They were all dressed the same in weird body suits with armour that all seemed to have visible chakra covering them head to toe.

The woman announced something that had me vaguely annoyed. "Greetings Princess Koyuki."

"You've got to be kidding me a revenge plot? We aren't even in the country proper yet!" I blurted out at the three shinobi facing off against us ignoring the fact that this was probably meant to be some kind of life changing reveal, but it didn't really feel like one considering Yukie's reaction about the land of snow up until this point. Kakashi went straight for the violet haired guy while the other two Snow Ninja went for the princess who seemed to be experiencing what people called Shell Shock or PTSD.

I heard the woman laugh as she launched herself down upon Naruto who had stepped in to stop her while Akamaru and Kiba fang over fanged the big dude as he tried to grapple Sakura.

"Keep the camera's rolling or so help me! Even if your lives depend on it! This is perfect for the movie!" I heard the director yelling as people carted their mobile station and camera around while Sakura moved to try to get them all back aboard the ship.

"Fuck! Takezou swap in!" I heard Kiba say letting me jump in front of the large guy who I now realized had a snowboard, let alone the giant metal arm that he had.

Why?

I blocked an incoming set of strikes dancing around the man's large limbs as he kicked up an enormous amount of snow and ice, there were kunai and other jutsu being thrown all over the place behind me while I dealt with the guy. Before I could swing the sword through the bastard a humongous wall of ice kicked up in between us blocking me from bisecting the man, I was kicked away by the pink haired woman while I watched Akamaru and Kiba 'tap in' so to speak. They were like a blazing bullet as they streaked past crashing into her and the wall blowing it up and nearly catching me in it.

Things got a whole lot worse when I noticed Naruto's eyes had gone red and infinitely more feral as he let out a roar.

I learned something from Sasuke a while ago and now seemed like a great time to use it."_GREAT DRAGON FLAME JUTSU!_" following my words was a fireball the size of a small house sent flying towards the large guy as he skirted around on his snowboard dodging the dogged duo, Kiba substituted himself and Akamaru out with a person size chunk of ice that exploded from a punch before the snowboarding ninja was engulfed be the inferno of red-orange and yellow that melted the area around where he was leaving a charred man standing in the middle of the sunken area as the steam cleared.

His armoured arm was short circuiting as electricity sparked around it, despite the now faulty appliance the brute pushed towards me as he jump suit seemed to have lost a great deal of its chakra coating leaving nearly blackened spots from the fire.

He was fast.

Why was it that the brutes were faster than you'd give them credit for?

I slid around him on the iced over ground and drew back my sword which still hadn't expended its charge while Sakura threw a handful of explosive tagged kunai at him distracting him for long enough.

My blade found purchase in the shoulder of the armoured arm of his as it released the ungodly amount of chakra into the wound blowing the arm up in a brutal display of gore a viscera sending the man off in the opposite direction skidding along the ground with a howl of pain. I was left standing in the same place as I whipped the blade out making a spray of blood in an arc on the ground, I covered my mouth for a second keeping my lunch in my stomach.

I caught site of a fucking _Unicorn Ice Whale_ as it launched out from the ocean crashing down on the island seperating what we were standing on from the raised more mountainous part of the glacier.

"Shit-" was all I managed to get out as I substituted with one of my logs back towards the ship.

I felt hands wrap around me as I fumbled forward along the ice, in a moment I was standing next to the team and crew onboard the ship as it sailed away from the attackers. I was panting and finding it hard to breathe for a minute when Sakura came over and started using medical Ninjutsu- which I didn't realize she could use, when she was done though my breathing returned to normal and I thanked her for it. The director thought everything was awesome and went on about how 'the movie was evolving' though he didn't expect the movie's rating to become more than family friendly all of a sudden pointedly looking at me and Kiba.

As I was letting loose a sigh someone spoke up.

"Takezou? Why did your substitution log have that on it?" It was Kakashi who asked me about one of the many things that I had written onto large pieces of paper before attaching them to the logs.

"Which one was it? I didn't get a chance to read it." I asked back, seeing the smirk on Kakashi's face. The approval apparent.

"It read 'I'm glad you missed me so much'." he said with mirth ever present, I could see the pinkette nurse rolling her eyes trying to hide a smile while Kiba let out a laugh and Naruto giggling like a schoolgirl.

"So what's going to happen with Koyuki?" I asked Sensei as he surveyed the crew for a moment.

"That's what we're about to go and talk about if you lot want to join." he said as he began walking back inside the main cabin towards a room I had seen when we first got on board, it was a meeting room with maps, a table and chairs all set up and ready for planning.

We all followed him into the room where Sandayu, Makino and- the… uh- ginger guy? I forgot his name.

**[Scene Break]**

It was about an hour after the meeting now, a sigh escaped me.

Who'd have thought Naruto would have gone off on the princess about disregarding her attendants dream? Not her that's for sure, she stormed out of the room as fast as she appeared to argue the futility of it all. While her Nihilism seemed to make Naruto mad I sat there and kind of agreed with her really, I mean really I didn't give a crap so long as we got paid for this crap. But my agreement was more because the problem we actually had to deal with was overthrowing a government that was controlling the entire country and didn't seem to have any qualms with killing his own brother, so why would he care about Koyuki? He would just kill her so he was uncontested.

All this crap was getting on my nerves, while Naruto sulked around and Sakura seemed to be trying to at least sort of cheer him up. Sensei was on the deck while Kiba and I were taking turns guarding the princess. It was currently my turn and I was standing outside her room facing the hall leaning against the wall.

Around the time my shift so to say ended we were docking again, but this time it was on actual land instead of an iceberg. When I got onto deck I watched in awe.

I forgot about technology, holy shit it had been so long. The closest Konoha came was electricity and home appliances, there was a massive convoy of these snow truck things. They were pretty cool to see.

Too bad I didn't get a chance to ride in one because it took an hour before we took off and that meant I was back to guarding the princess as she sat in hers depressed and looking like she hated the world as the mountains and forests past us. I suppose it would be remiss of me not to clarify, but I chose not to be in the truck with the rest of the team while I watched over Koyuki, I was sitting on top of her truck unbeknownst to her so that if she ran I could go after her.

We made a pit stop outside the entrance of an enormous ice cave, I overheard someone mention that we were traveling along an old train track that had rails buried deep under the ice. My first thought was that the chakra armour Kakashi had explained to us that the Snow Ninja had was probably a normal metal that got used here often and that we should get off the tracks in case a train came through along them because the tracks were being heated by chakra clearing the snow. It would only be common sense for them to do that right?

A small group of people jogged over the cliff side to relieve themselves, I probably would've joined them if not for the fact that the princess had silently opened and closed her door before going off into the forest as the trucks began traveling into the tunnel.

Now see I could've stopped her but I didn't and instead I followed her silently keeping myself up high in the trees.

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**AN: Takezou has started to change and I wonder if you'll catch where it all becomes apparent.**


	20. Arc 4 - Chilly Reception Part 4

**AN: Hello Again.**

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**Chapter Title: Fire and Ice don't mix well do they?**  
**Arc 4 Part 4**

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We had been gone for an hour or so, the group was supposed to be on a twenty minute break before the tunnel they were meant to be going through was something like an hour or just under, it would be a while before anyone noticed we were gone.

Koyuki was running through the forest with nothing but a hastily thrown on kimono and shoes as she trudged through the snow, I still haven't done anything yet. You might ask why that was, and my honest answer would be because she wanted to die and I was more or less only going to step in when she was in a dangerous situation, that might sound like an asshole thing to do, but the woman knew what she wanted and it wasn't like I've ever portrayed myself to be anything that wasn't assholish.

She began to trip and stumble forward, the fumbling was almost in slow motion.

I could tell by the look in her eyes that if she stopped here and no one saved her she would choose this place as her grave, in the middle of the snowed forest where no one could see her or hear her.

I swooped down from the tree picking her up carrying her bridal style as she seemed to go unconscious making a face that depicted acceptance and the lack of light in her eyes made the ordeal a lot sadder, she was ready to die. This was where she was waiting for it to happen. Pushing fate or whoever to just kill her already.

She thought death was a preferable alternative to continuing this existence of hers that only brought her pain and suffering.

We were still standing where she had begun to fall, I hadn't made to move yet. It was a wonder why seeing as her obvious wish for death and wanton Existential Nihilism was getting to me. I wasn't often in much of a good head-space and this wasn't helping it. Everything about the chance I had been given here was slowly beginning to make me want to talk to this woman and give her my piece, hopefully she would at least want to continue living, I wasn't going to force her to become the princess again. I just wanted her to see what life had to enjoy again.

"Yukie… Koyuki wake up." I said to the woman in my arms as I looked at her with a hollow expression, my voice was soft and endearing, I was speaking to her in the same tone I used with my younger sister. Even if this woman was older than me I was going to treat her like a child if she was going to continue acting like one.

A few minutes went by and I had begun walking not in any particular direction.

Koyuki wasn't rousing from her sleep yet, I was fine with walking her until she did, it wasn't like what I'd say to her would be very nice should she wake anyway. I'm not Naruto. I can't tell her to never give up because it's my ninja way, what I'd ask would be something in a different direction. After all it would've been easier for her that way. Maybe she didn't want to cause anyone trouble or make a scene. The reddy pink coat she had on over her kimono was beginning to absorb the warmth I was projecting with my chakra as we continued, if she wasn't going to die just yet then I'd at least make the rest of our walk more comfortable for her.

The princess mumbled in her slumber once or twice going so far as to put her arms around me, it was a little awkward, and I didn't really know how to react to her doing it… a sigh escaped my mouth. It was going to be a long day wasn't it?

Ugh, I'd have said this woman was beautiful or pretty at one point, but now she's just a nuisance.

Well that and the fact that only my right eye could see her in colour properly, otherwise my left eye had gotten worse and I was pretty sure it happened after that battle on the iceberg.

Twenty or so minutes passed again without much warning in my wandering.

"A S-Samurai…?" her voice tired and drowsy filled my ears as she seemed to wake, her eyes were half lidded and her grip seemed to get tighter, and I still felt uncomfortable with it despite it being my fault.

"Sure, and my name is Yasuke." I replied to the weary woman who was nuzzling herself into my chest making my face flush, this was so damned embarrassing. I should just drop her and make her walk.

Oh man. They were going to find me soon, I really didn't want to be found like this.

"Hey if you're awake then mind telling me why you were going the wrong way?" I decided to ask the questions I'd originally wanted to but couldn't.

"What do you mean?" she asked back, blue eyes still not fully awake yet as hers bore into my amber.

"If you wanted to die that badly the cliff was the other direction." I said lazily doing my best impression of Kakashi while keeping the tone I used earlier when I was originally trying to rouse her. "But you don't seem to want death as badly as you say."

Her eyes were wide as she realized who she was talking to now, or maybe she didn't. I was wearing my hood and had a scarf pulled up over my nose covering my face and obscuring it after all, so it was probably a little difficult.

"W-who who are you?!" she damn near stretched into my ear making me wince.

"I told you who I was, plus I think Naruto is on his way this direction so if you don't want to get his attention I can bring you to where the others should be." the lost princess seemed to accept what I offered and nodded, my eyes flashed wide open as chakra pulsed through me and I launched us into the air and began traveling among the trees.

**[Scene Break]**

I could tell it was going to happen long before it did.

Naruto burst out onto the scene of me carrying her announcing as he did so "YEAH! I found you! Good luck hiding from me I'm the master so I'll always find you!" His voice was loud and it was too quiet up until this point for him to suddenly be yelling like a lunatic.

He did seem to deflate when he realized that he hadn't found Koyuki on his own like he wanted to. "GAH! What! Take! You're here?!"

"Well yes, I am." I said simply. "Could you keep it down please? We're ninja for crying out loud." Naruto covered his mouth and shut himself up only to begin talking in a somewhat hushed manner.

"Wait so how did you get to her first?" he asked, walking alongside me as we approached a tunnel which I immediately could tell something was off. There was a distant and faint sound of a train. I'd know the sound anywhere, I saw and heard them far too much in another lifetime.

"Well I was with her the entire time, I made sure she didn't get into trouble." I replied again making the shorter brightly coloured boy frown. "How long do you think we've been gone anyway?"

"Hmm…. an hour!"

"Try nearly three hours, it probably took everyone ages to figure out we were even gone, huh?" I thought to myself for a moment, Naruto was quiet with his mouth hung open in surprise that we had been gone that long. "Course, it's not like the princess made it easy to realize, she escaped quieter than you've ever been in your life, it was actually surprising."

"Is this why you didn't want to be inside the trucks?" he asked, still a little confused.

The Hime piped up cutting off what I was about to say. "Train."

"Shit thats what I was going to say." I took off at a speed I thought Naruto could keep up with on his own until I realized the kid was nearly a hundred meters behind us and I dropped back to throw him onto my back and I went full speed out of the tunnel making it out long before the Train had even a chance to realize we were in the tunnel with them. I leapt up onto the top of the tunnel exit so we could be out of the way.

"Holy h-hell!" both passengers on me said as the train came flying out of the tunnel, stopping only when a group of Samurai stood atop the hill made themselves known, getting a rise out of the actress as Naruto dropped from my back and watched in confusion.

I was considering letting the princess down when the cliff-side exploded and an avalanche torrented down the mountain crashing into the armoured train nearly throwing it off the cliff next to the tracks. The Samurai had begun to come down the hill sliding along the snow and running cheering out together.

A quiet voice spoke "Sandayu?" she said staring in disbelief at the men gathered here.

"To live and die by the sword, for your lord and no other. That is the way of the samurai." I stated for the two unaware of what they were about to bear witness to.

The train had opened up a large set of compartments along each carriage where shinobi appeared next to panels that had a lard rotating wheel that was probably attached to whatever would fire out of the compartments. I steeled myself for what I knew was coming, this was something they would consider the most honorable thing they would do. I refuse to step in on something that important.

"Wait what the hells going on?!" Naruto started yelling as he watched, he turned to me and I could tell he was more than a little confused at my lack of emotion and care at the current moment.

He only got worse when the arrows began to fly at men charging, slaughtering everyone in their path, blood sprayed the mountain in a display of viscera and gore, the bodies torn limb from limb as kunai were launched as well.

"Hey! We-we gotta stop them!" the future Hokage looked at me like I could do something about what we were about to experience, let alone the slaughter we were privy to.

"I already said that I couldn't."

"Nu-uh! You just said they were Samurai!" he yelled about to take off when the final man- Sandayu stood alone on a hill surrounded by bodies and swords, there was a resounding _clang_ as a fuuma shuriken kept the man from being killed as it blocked the kunai.

"Just _**shut up**__ would you_!" I said back my anger flaring as my grip around Koyuki tightened causing her to yelp in surprise. This brat wanted to sit here and make light of the sacrifices those men had wanted to make once they had caught sight of their lord. I had a lot of respect for men like that.

"Those men are fighting for what they believe in Naruto and death was a part of that." he was watching me with a disdain at the lack of care for the human lives lost, yet rendered useless at the horror before us.

I was going to continue reaming the fool for what he was saying when another explosion triggered setting an even larger avalanche off that careened toward the Train, said train began firing up and trying to move out of the way passing over a wooden bridge that exploded throwing it all off the mountain. All the carts and the locomotive itself crashed into the forest below, bellowing up an enormous explosion.

**[Scene Break]**

It took thirty odd minutes for everyone to converge down on the tracks and start trying to help. I had put Koyuki down and was sticking around her. She was going to get into trouble with that Doto guy if he came back or survived the explosion. I realized after the fact that there was a portable microphone on my shirt, and everything got really embarrassing when the director ran over to me and said I should be an actor because those lines I came up with were perfect.

I nearly punched his face in for it.

He hadn't been able to get what it had recorded when I had gone off with her when she escaped thankfully, but the man had the gall to play back what I had been saying and said it would be a great line to play over the Samurai scene where they were running at the train.

My teeth were grinding whenever that man was around, he had slapped mics on us and then was intending on using what we said. Without telling us.

I watched Kakashi and a few others bring Koyuki's attendant over on a stretcher still dressed in his armour. Team seven were standing around on their own watching, Sakura was providing healing to anyone that seemed to still be alive, Kiba and Akamaru were with her and Naruto was arguing with the princess of whom like I said I was standing around.

I didn't pay attention to what was said but I heard Naruto going off about how the man had risked his life for her and all that, it made me mad obviously, seeing as to what happened earlier, but I let it go here. I didn't want to punt the kid off the mountain just yet.

Koyuki blathered on about the futility of what was happening and made a crappy joke about eye drops.

Right as Naruto made to grab the princess while she walked away, a large airship rose up from the hillside and those shinobi from the glacier appeared, the woman was flying with these weird wings like a wingsuit, the violet haired guy Kakashi was playing 'who has the bigger animal jutsu' with was throwing Kunai, the big guy was nowhere to be found though.

The woman with the wingsuit flew down and took off with the pretty pink nihilist princess, tens of kunai were thrown down at us that exploded into ice jutsu destroying all the vehicles.

I said I was always watching her and that I was nearby, so when they landed inside the ship and began flying away I was on the roof as Naruto climbed up a rope and stormed into it, I was glad I brought those ninja wire dispensing bracelets they came in handy to get on here. Quickly though I pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled on it attaching it to a kunai I threw it at Kakashi, I caught sight of him picking it up off the ground and giving a thumbs up. Some time later I moved towards where the front was and a couple of windows were, I found Koyuki sitting on a couch as her uncle walked in and he started saying some shit that had me cringing a little. Man sounded like he wanted more than just the crystal, I was getting ready to break in snag the two and get out.

There was yelling and I realized Naruto had already been caught.

"Fuck" I swore under my breathe as I raised my hearing by focusing chakra into my ears so that I could listen in better, it didn't matter though I couldn't hear anything more than before it was too well insulated.

While I had a moment though I did pull out enough ninja wire from the bracelets so that I could tie it around the loop of the kunais handle, that way I had some easy weapons if I couldn't get any from my pouches or unsheathe my sword in time. They made for decent weapons and if I needed it I could use them like a grappling hook.

Now though we were flying towards an enormous fortress in the distance that looked pretty foreboding that's for sure.

* * *

**AN: I really enjoyed writing this arc and I still can't really tell why to be completely honest, I just know that I liked it, maybe it was because the movie was decent. I'm not really sure. Though the next arc after this one does go into the third Naruto Movie.**


	21. Arc 4 - Chilly Reception Part 5

**AN: This chapter marks the start of something new I actually decided to do while editing later chapters where in the scene break bits I just added a small bit of text adding the the previous section. I'm not really sure why exactly but I thought it was just fun to do so I came back through all the chapters until this one and added it, I'm not sure if I'll add them to the chapters that are already posted but we'll have to wait and see.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Animals Caged and Thoughts Escaping through the mouth**  
**Arc 4 Part 5**

* * *

Naruto was giving a speech about not giving up and always pushing forward when I dropped down and unlocked Koyuki's cell before walking over to his, he had fried himself on the bars of the jail cell he was in.

I think his speech got to Koyuki or the obvious betrayal she was planning involved fooling Naruto into thinking she believed him which was odd, considering as far as I could tell she genuinely started to believe in what he was saying. When I followed her into the main throne room earlier though- that old bastard made a deal with her to get the crystal back so then she could be left alone and sent back the land of fire to do movies and forget this.

The biggest thing since getting inside the castle though was that I was confused as to how easy it was for me to slip around the place and do as I wanted, I had a run in with that big guy that had the metal arm when I was scouting around. I punched a hole through his head with the kunai on the wire I had prepared, I had kept myself from reacting and we were far enough out of the way that I didn't expect anyone to find him so after that I had headed straight to the cells.

Leaving me where I was now looking at the unconscious Naruto and the depressed and very surprised princess who was at a loss for words.

"Yasuke at your service my lady." I started with a bow and a smile, I turned around when I heard Naruto making noise on the ground. With a sigh I pulled my scarf back up over my face and made a 'shush' gesture as I heard footsteps and talking coming from down the walkway.

The two guys that came through went to open Naruto's cell and I dropped down behind them driving the wired kunai into them as I pushed their bodies down the large gape next to the walkway. Naruto was properly awake now and seemed to be surprised that I was already here after I opened the door he grabbed Koyuki and we started running to an elevator. Taking it up we arrived on a bridge that crossed into the main building where I stopped the two and handed the princess another very convincing fake hex crystal.

"Wait… why do you have this? Shouldn't Kakashi have it?" She asked confused, only to take a step back as a ninja landed near us and Naruto went at him.

"Nah, I swiped it from him when he wasn't paying attention, plus I've been acting as your guard since we left the boat, it wasn't like I was going to keep the real thing that far from you at all times." I turned in time to see sensei hand Naruto his pouch back after revealing himself.

Kakashi winked at us with a smile.

"Good to see you're able to handle yourself Takezou- or should I say Yasuke?" what an ass.

"Let's get going, old man."

Kiba and Sakura busted onto the scene and we all started heading through the castle towards where I had seen the throne room. We were walking into a dark room and standing around when the lights flicked on and the two shinobi we kept running into, they both looked mad, not to mention Doto who was sitting on his throne like a god above us.

The room was large and could easily fit a house or two in it, the staircase that led up to the platform where the throne was enormous.

Koyuki ran forward and I caught her jacket stopping her.

"Well done Koyuki!" her uncle announced as I did so.

"Let go of the princess Leaf Ninja." The woman with pink hair stated as Kakashi stepped forward with the rest of team seven except Naruto who was confused.

"I don't know, I've been finding it hard to let go of her recently, something about being Yasuke her samurai." I joked out loud smiling and before we knew what had happened Kakashi had already Raikiri'ed the violet haired guy while Akamaru and Kiba thrashed the pink haired woman in a surprise attack. Amongst the confusion I slipped the real hex crystal onto Naruto, Sensei had given it to me when we were following Koyuki into the throneroom.

"What! What're you doing Koyuki!" her uncle growled angrily as I continued to play Yasuke to her Nobunaga, I was a glorified samurai for her at this point, maybe I just wanted to help her more than I realized I wanted to.

Maybe watching someone so Nihilistic got to my heart or soul, she was pretty as well sure, but I think her little philosophical rants about giving up reminded me of something- so I wanted to change her mind maybe.

Doto tore his clothing off revealing a heavy set of chakra armour as he charged forward batting Naruto away as he attempted to punch the older man, Doto reached me and I managed to wrap the kunai and wire around his wrist. I took a note out of Sasuke's book and set them on fire as I tried to wrap it around his body, I pulled out a small vial of oil that I threw on him that caused him to go up in flames.

Wings erupted out from the armour and blew away most of the fire, an explosion caught everyone off guard as Doto grabbed the princess and launched himself off out of the hole in the roof. I didn't get a chance to wrap another Kunai around his limbs but did see Naruto land one as he tore off after them into the sky leaving us to escape the crumbling building as it all fell apart.

We didn't run into anyone else when leaving the building we headed into the forest to start heading towards the glacier.

Ugh. we didn't make it to the spot where the rainbow glacier was until the sun had begun to rise, Naruto rasenganed the damn Doto guy into one of the pillars as the world around us transformed and I heard Koyuki yelling encouragement for Naruto as he did so, calling out something about how he was the strongest ninja she'd met After that though I noticed memories of Koyuki playing above us in this huge projection, it was about her and her father as he discussed the machine we were standing in a massive scale version of.

I landed next to our orange Hokage and the actress princess only to catch the end of what both of them were saying to one another.

"You've got to be kidding me I missed the end of the movie and Naruto stole the girl out from under me." I half joked though I unintentionally said it loud enough for most everyone to hear, which was around the time I realized the film crew caught that whole thing.

Gods Damn it.

"Stole the girl from me' huh? I got the impression you thought she was annoying dude." Kiba walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder with a laugh.

"Yeah but I guess she grew on me" I paused for a moment. "Kinda like a fungi." he laughed even louder as everyone started to converge on where we were, Kakashi went and found Doto's corpse, Sakura healed up most every that needed it except Naruto seeing as he was only exhausted while Kiba and I stood there and watched Koyuki smile like a child at the- well the spring around us I guess. the snow filled lands had become a grassy knoll paradise filled with colourful flowers that I had a hard time believing were there before the snow was removed.

The princess turned to us. "Like a fungi huh?" oh crap.

"This is all yours Takezou, you wanted the girl right?" he laughed at me and began stepping away as she approached and Akamaru barked out happily.

"Uhh… is it too late to say sorry?"

She stopped just in front of me. "Thank you." She bowed deeply and I wasn't really sure what to do.

"I-I i uh..." raising her head Koyuki had a smile on her face.

"Thank you for watching out for me, you didn't have to but once we got off the ship you were always there acting as my guard and it means a lot to me." she moved closer and hugged me which I awkwardly accepted. "Thank you truely Yasuke or Takezou whatever you want to be called." I heard Kiba wolf whistle.

"Um… sure I guess." I backed off as she did and watched as Koyuki went over to the film crew.

Within half an hour though we were on our way back to where the rest of the surviving crew were and we helped with the rest of the filming the directors still wanted to do the rest of the day.

**[Break from the cold]**

A few days passed and Koyuki took up her mantle as princess, now Daimyo of the land of spring/snow.

Her coronation was a huge affair that Kakashi said we had to stay around for, Kiba kept going on about my girl stealing quote and Naruto was out cold. Sakura had a blast with the festival they were holding for Koyuki. At least that was the impression I got from how giddy and how brightly she was beaming about it all.

The palace we were at for this was like chinese castle from what I remembered of them anyway.

After all that though that left us where we were now, Kiba was stuffing his face with food while Sakura and Kakashi were talking to Koyuki about the generator that was currently keeping the country in a state of spring. I overheard something about keeping it spring forever which I actually disagree with because thats kind of messed up to literally rewrite a countries weather just because you haven't seen spring in it- especially because The Land of Snow was next to Iron and they were both the only places that were year round cold enough for snow to always be in stock.

It was her country now though, so I suppose she'd do as she wished with it.

"Wait, that script?!" I heard sensei cry out loud as he watched and saw was in the princess' hands, I turned and my eyes went wide when I realized that woman was holding one for the Icha Icha series.

Oh no, well… I guess Jiraiya would be happy.

Wait… no that wasn't an Icha Icha book is it? No no it wasn't, it read '_a story from the writer who wrote the acclaimed Ic__ha Icha series_' well that was better at least… so it must be like that Gutsy Ninja one right? I remember liking it, maybe I'll check it out. though it was odd phrasing.

"Being an actress and the daimyo should be easy enough to balance!" she said cheerily as she left us to our own devices and Kakashi was having a breakdown over who was about to play the main heroine in his porn novel movie. Probably having not seen what the title of it actually was.

"Oh! Hey Kiba?" I asked him as he joined us again, he handed Akamaru some food as he approached. "Did you get that picture autographed for Naruto? Since he's still in hospital."

"Sure did!" he laughed loudly while sensei continued his mental breakdown.

**[Scene was like a movie]**

We arrived home about a week after the coronation much to Naruto's disdain as he realized he missed out on seeing Koyuki one more time.

We all actually got a photo with Koyuki that she signed for us, I put mine in a frame and put it far out of my immediate sight on my shelf. She had written a message on it that I had no intention of wanting to see ever again. The fact that I had a damn part of the movie was annoying enough as was. The damn director kept getting my voice lines damn it!

Thats not even mentioning that we each got a photo with her alone and the group one.

Mum was over the moon happy that I was back and dad thought the photo and message was hilarious.

The photo was of all of team seven plus myself and Koyuki crowded around Naruto's hospital bed as he was out asleep, on the right side of the bed was Sakura, Kiba, Akamaru and Kakashi, on the left side I was with Koyuki- I won't say what she wrote on mine though. Ugh. I'd really rather she hadn't said it.

The woman said it to my face before we set off as well so it didn't help.

I was on break for a few weeks now though, the mission went from a B rank to a high class A rank that was nearly an S rank based solely on who became involved in the end of it, so we all got huge payouts not to mention a bonus for each of us seeing as we were going to end up as apart of the next installment of the Princess Gale movies series. Anyway it wasn't like I'd be hurting for money over the next few months at the least.

You want to know how embarrassing this damn movie really was? There were already rumours spreading about the infamous copy-nin, the "orange beast", the "fanged duo", the "deadly pink nurse" and finally the "The Black Samurai" being new characters in the movie, how the hell was I going to live this down?! I know for sure that Shikamaru's teammate- the girl I kept insulting would be on top of this, and my Aunt- oh gods my Aunty Ume would have a field day and they don't even know about what I said while we were there! Fuck!

I've been saying this since we left for the land of snow, but 'today's going to be slow isn't it.'

Another few days after we got got went by and I was sitting with my sister in the living room while she was reading a book out loud, it was nice to not be off for several weeks doing work and non stop moving, being a ninja was tough let alone all the killing I had ended up doing. Dad said my eyes were losing their light and I think I knew what he meant, he was referring to that bright liveliness of them that was normally around, it had been on the decline since the exams where I ended up getting my first kill. I was holding my Hitai-ate and looking the poor thing over, I've had it for a year now and the cloth was already torn and cut up not to mention the cuts on the metal itself.

I should probably get a new one, maybe another bandana?

Hm the bandana design could be cool, I ought to go looking and see if there's more shinobi grade cloth or bandana's for this sort of thing. At that point I should probably look into replacing my long sleeved shirt, the one I wore on the mission got shredded up.

I was drawn from my thoughts when the door to the house opened and I heard the voice of my grandmother call out into the house, I guess they were back then. They had been gone for the last month while trying to salvage what was left of their cottage and forging area, their actual house which was more like a japanese mansion was still fine, from what I understood though they were looking to sell that old place and get a new one built in one of the large properties near where we lived now, like how Ume had her property and Dojo only a block or so away because the plains area we lived in was pretty empty for housing.

"Takezou! I heard you got yourself a part in a movie?" my grandfather- Koutetsu said as he walked in the room, I could smell the fire and metal on both of them.

"Something like that- I suppose I got you some more customers hopefully, I used the new sword whenever the cameras were rolling and the emblem was always facing them." I responded with a sigh.

"We'll need to start getting that new forge up and running then!" He said cheerily with a calloused landing on my head as he ruffled my hair reminding me that I needed to tie it up.

Koutetsu came and sat down across from me and I heard Mum come in from the backyard where she had been in her garden I didn't see where Masamune was or went, before I knew it though, Mum had made up tea for herself and my grandparents and a cup of coffee for myself.

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**AN: This was another one of the chapters where I definitely look back on it and realized that it ends a fairly rushed like, other than that though you'll have to guess what Koyuki told Takezou, because it won't get mentioned by him.**


	22. Arc 4-5 - Down Time

**AN: So apparently if the Naruto wiki is to be believed for the payouts on missions which I never looked into beforehand, then Takezou has enough money to buy several houses and furnish them. like what the fuck, apparently A-ranks payout anywhere from $150k to $1million Ryo, and he's done what like at least two of those now.**

**Anyhow this chapter is like cleaning up loose ends as well as a few extra bits.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Misinformation**  
**Sub Arc - Down Time**

* * *

Three months had passed already since I had gotten back from the mission in the land of snow.

the crackle of flame and ember emphasized by the smell of paper and pine burning, touching my senses and making me smile as I watched it all burn. All the notes and profiles of people I had made for myself in case I had ever forgotten them, all in a bonfire I had created. Nothing but ash remained of the writings, that was how I wanted it to be. There was something not too long ago that clicked in me while we were on a C-Rank to Wind as part of an Emissary to help patch up relations, the something that made me decide to burn it all was watching Gaara do paper work while this old lady cackled like some sort of Oni forcing the boy to do the Kazekages work.

It was then that I had realized that I didn't really care enough if my memory was degrading and not to mention it all became unnecessary or at least they had all become obsolete. I couldn't rely on it to get me through this life any longer. Sasuke was gone and I needed to start doing shit on my own.

I had been mad about the sand in my sandals for most of the trip though.

On another note apparently, they had just finished dealing with some invading force from a far-off land, it was classified for obvious reasons so they couldn't really say much beyond what was already public knowledge. Because who'd have thought that you wouldn't be able to cover an entire army sitting at the country's doorstep.

From what I got out of the Batman guy- uh… what was his name? oh right! Kankuro, yeah that guy, he was relatively fun to talk to and so while I was chatting with him he said that there was something about these Gelel guys and they wore armour that sounded like European knight armour. The whole situation sounded kind of cool, I wished at the time that I had been able to see them, but they had left some time after being defeated.

Anyway, seeing Gaara and his siblings was nice, they were interesting enough.

Before I had set fire to my books with the crap in them, I had to explain to Dad why I was standing in our backyard dumping my belongings into a metal brazier, he seemed content with me saying that it was shit that I didn't want anymore and asked if he could give me some of his old paperwork that was just clutter now to burn.

So here I was watching those books burn along with Dad's old papers.

"I hope you're going to clean that up when you're done, Takezou." My mother's voice came from behind me, I turned to see her wearing a peach pink t-shirt and light blue calf-length pants with strap sandals. Her blue eyes watched me, eyebrows arched as I scratched the back of my head.

"Ah… yeah I was going to, that's why it's on the concrete." Mum moved off to the side and sat down on a dark greyish black couch that was under a lip of the roof that stuck out from the house providing the seat shade.

The backyard was mostly Mum's domain, that being because Dad was more often in his study or out in the village doing stuff- I think he works temp jobs for civilians when he has time during the week. Anyway, the yard had Mum's garden of which she spent a lot of time in. It was probably my favourite part of the house aside from the kitchen, to give an idea- once you stepped out of the door into the yard there was a large stone/concrete raised block that had five stairs that went down to the actual grass part of it, the veranda had its posts in the raised stone.

Aside from that the yard was encased by a two metre tall brown fence- actually now that I thought about it our house was more westerny-European mixed with eastern, I wonder if that's what it was like when my parents got it? Or if they built it?

"Hey Mum, did you and Dad buy the house as it is now? Or did you buy the property and build it in the way it is?" I asked turning back towards her from watching the fire.

"Oh? Are you interested in why it looks the way it does?" she asked back curiously moving into a sitting position from having laid back on the couch.

"Yeah I suppose so, I mean the style is just so different compared to the rest of our neighborhood let alone the rest of Konoha." I replied.

"Ah, well back when your father and I first got together and we moved me to Konoha, your father brought the property and there was this old run down house on it, so he decided that he wanted to build our own house here. A lot of the inspiration for the outside of the house is somewhat based off my family's house from when I was growing up whereas the interior is based off his parents' house when he was growing up." She explained scratching her cheek as she thought back on it.

"Speaking of, what were your parents like Mum?" I hadn't really ever asked her to hear her talk about them.

"Hm… I suppose I haven't talked about them before then?" She said more to herself than me. "Well as you know, that Kekkei Genkai of ours was what killed them in the end, so I guess I could tell you about how they died from it." She didn't seem all that bothered talking about them, in fact I might say my Mother looked and sounded excited to talk about them. "But before that you might want to clean up then go get your sister and we can have a bit of a story time." She said, reminding me of what I had been doing, I quickly went off and did as she said coming back out and sitting next to her with Akatsuki in Mum's lap with Mum's arms around her.

There was a brief silence where she looked thoughtfully out into the garden at the shed and then seemed to find resolve.

"Alright, so let's start with your grandparents, my Mother's name was Chizuru Ittousai and she was a Shinobi for Kumogakure, while my father Fuyuki Rakurai was- well my father was… it doesn't matter what he was, by the time I was born he was a father that was always at home and that enjoyed spending time with my mother and I." She said taking a moment to trail off away from whatever her father had been.

"So?" I prompted her.

"Ah, well what happened was that around the time I was fifteen or sixteen my mother had retired from being a Ninja and stayed around at home or was out helping the small village we lived in. She did that because when she had retired a few years prior when I was about eight, we moved out into the more rural areas in the Land of Lightning." Mum paused waiting for my sister to stop moving around in her lap before continuing. "and so my father also did the same thing for the most part- they had trained me to fight, but only to protect myself and not for anything else. Anyway I'm getting side tracked, My parents had always told me that I needed to constantly use chakra and just throw it around so that our family death sentence didn't act up."

"So on this day what had happened was that Dad had been paralysed recently and Mum was looking after him, but he hadn't been able to use chakra for a long time and this slowly built up to a point when his body had so much circulating in it that eventually it couldn't hold it- Dad was asleep and Mum was unaware of what was happening, so all that chakra with nowhere to go eventually just decided to force itself out and the resulting aftermath had our entire house destroyed in an explosion and both my parents dead." She sighed as she began to run her hands through Akatsuki's hair. "Not a very exciting story, but it's something that we need to be very aware of- 'Tsuki, Take- just remember to always keep an eye on this and if anything, ever feels off then come to me or your father. This is the sort of thing that can kill us and I don't even want you to go through the same thing I had to when I was younger." Mum finished holding a serious but glum look.

"So is there anything else about your parents you want to talk about Mum? Like I mean what did your father do before you were born?" I asked bringing it around.

"Oh, well… my father… was… he- Dad was a mercenary, a very well-known one in the land of lightning for a long time before he had retired to live with Mum." She seemed uneasy about what granddad did, there was probably something there that she was uncomfortable with.

"So why did Chizuru retire from being a Ninja? Well aside from having a baby." I asked giving her a lifeboat to move on with.

"My mother retired before she was pregnant actually, she retired from being a shinobi because as she told me 'the bastard lot of them won't stop blathering on about how Men are better fighters' or that's somewhat paraphrased seeing as it's been something like three decades since she told me that, so take it with a grain of salt." There was a clock on the wall next to Mum and she looked it after she stopped talking. "Looks like story time is over, I need to head out for a little while." She said as she began to stand realizing that my sister had fallen asleep in her lap- I got a look from her that asked me for help.

"I've got her." I said as I picked my sister up in my arms and moved out of the way letting Mum past into the house while Akatsuki stirred in my arms.

"mrbl… 'Ake?" her quiet voice mumbled out tiredly.

"Yes, yes, your dearest 'Ake is here." I said back as I waked us to her room and set her down pulling the sheets of the bed over her and leaving her to sleep.

I sighed to myself as I left the room leaving the door partially open, I was glad to hear about what Mum's parents were like and what they did, but I didn't get the chance to ask her about whether or not she knew any Jutsu- 'cause I remember when Dad was teaching me the academy three that she helped out, and I wanted to know if she could actually perform them. I'll have to talk with her about it when she gets back from grocery shopping later today.

I mean she would have to know some though right? Because that would be the best way for her to expel chakra with our Kekkei Genkai, for now though I'm just glad it doesn't really start affecting us until we've started to have reserves build up, so Akatsuki wouldn't need to worry about that for a while yet.

**[Getting Past It]**

Slowly and calmly I breathed in through my nose, movements like the drawing of a bow had since become second nature with this action, as I did this I closed my eyes softly for the briefest second opening them in tune with the release of the breath. The following moments were filled with soft quiet words near inaudible "_Illusions of innocence, cast shadows on tranquility._" I spoke letting the arrow fly, heading straight and keeping its course despite the hundred and fifty odd yards between Yumi and I from the target.

There was a soft but still audible at range _thwip _as it flew until it made a _thump_ when it hit.

"Seriously what's that about?" a female voice said off to my left, making me turn towards its owner who gave me a raised brow. "You know what I mean, you keep saying that stuff whenever we practice. Last time it was something like 'Immortality is a heavy burden, so fly now and shed that weight' or I think that was it." Yumi said, watching for my answer.

"Uh..." I just sort of starred at her with my mouth open making a dumb sound as my thoughts were in a blank state, I had to shake my head once- well she did actually before I made an awkward noise and she laughed at me.

"I'll take that as you not really knowing and it being some sort of thing that helps focus your mind and soul on the shot, kinda like what I've seen grandfather do actually." She said, continuing without me. "Though his are- well they kind of sound like incantations or something crazy like that, yours sound like..." she trailed off as though the words got whisked away in the midst of her thought.

"Hel-" I was cut off by her finding them again.

"A Mantra! That's it! yours sounds more like a mantra!" she seemingly cheered for herself at remembering it.

"I guess, I must be doing it when I enter _that_ state, you know?" I said referring to _that_ and yes I do mean _that_ and not that other _that_. I laughed as she scowled at me.

She rolled her eyes as she began walking towards the targets in the Dojo's firing range "What? you mean _Wu Wei_?" she made a face at me before pulling the three arrows she had let loose out of the varying spots on the target while I pulled the four I had fired- three from the target and one that had gone off to the side and hit the wall when a large gust of wind had run through. "I've yet to really figure that out to be honest, grandpa says that I'll get it with time and whatnot, but it seems like one of those things where you have to accept a part of yourself that is hidden for a reason, you know what I mean?"

I gave a short nod, it reminded me of something I had gone through twice now, once in another life and here after the Chuunin Exam, despite what I had acted like at the time or well I suppose it had really reared itself during the Exam as well with the Neji incident where my mind just flicked that switch that everyone had. You know the switch right? The one that makes the difference between a civilized action you'd associate with normal and that primal human savagery that just wanted nothing more than causing pain, suffering and other horrid things people aren't even willing to accept is a part of them, no matter how nice and good they may seem. I know this because I had once learned about it before I passed and it was something that had stuck with me, well that and Asuma had pulled me aside when I was waiting for Hinata and Sasuke afterwards, he had talked to me about a look that he had seen sparked in my eye that I ought to keep an eye on because it was something that he'd seen people control and others fall horribly to its grasps.

It was just one of those things you have to learn about and understand on your own I guess.

We continued to train for another hour as the afternoon reigned in and the sky became that pinkish red hue, I was in the midst of removing all my Kyudo gear when the other people at the Dojo were leaving with one or two that were coming in to train in the late afternoon because they worked nine to five jobs, I said farewell to the people leaving and got a few hellos from the people coming in. Yumi had since already left while her grandfather was around helping some of the people get set up for training.

I did a few minutes of stretching before I finally left the Dojo and began heading home, my mind gave rise to an idea that I hadn't really dwelled on much except for in the moments they were relevant. Sometimes my mind would slip just enough and during those Kyudo practices the targets would appear human- like all those foes I've had the misfortune of fighting against, whenever I would come to see Orochimaru in them my breath would hitch while my heartbeat became sporadic, my eyes would be frenzied and uncertain letting loose arrows that would kill him dead in those moments of illusion. They scared me… not only because it seemed there was something deeper in my person that was scarred by the events, but because it was all in my head, I never fired the arrows, I never ceased up like I thought, when I came to, I'd be kneeling where I was moments prior as though nothing had happened and no one seemed to notice me.

I hadn't brought it up with anyone yet even though it's been a problem for these last months since after my promotion, everytime it happens I wonder why I ever decided to become another wretched fool for the slaughter like this… "_those morons- truly are they the reason?" _I spoke aloud casting it out in English as though I expected them to respond somehow.

My walk home was filled with more similar thoughts, upon seeing my family it was like all of my worries were washed away by their warmth and love, it was weird that, wasn't it? Just being in their presence had a way of clearing my head. I had no clue as to why it was that why, but it had been like that all of this life, something about them always made me feel safe in situations where my mind slipped and things weren't as they seemed to be.

**[A Lot Simpler Than You Think]**

A few days down the line I was with my aunt Ume and I decided to ask her a question because I had been considering something recently and she seemed like the person who would know about it.

"Ume? You have tattoos right?" asked her while she was in the middle of packing something from her lessons up.

"Uh… yeah? I do. Why?" she was obviously confused and I could understand why, this had come out of nowhere.

"You just seem like you would, and my reason was just that I was considering getting something and I thought you would be able to give me advice about it before I go and tell my parents." I explained.

"Right, well for starters your Dad has a few and really all I can suggest is that you think long and hard about it." she shrugged her shoulders and went back to focusing on the things she was organizing.

"Guess I'll have to ask Dad about it then- later Aunty." with that I left and went home to ask my father about it.

When I arrived home and talked to him he honestly didn't seem all that surprised I had taken interest in it, as well as that I found out that he had a black and white pair of Koi swimming around a Maple tree that had a Samurai wearing an Oni mask sharpening his blade stood next to it. Not what I would've expected for him to have on his chest. Though he had a braid of Plum and Sakura blossoms on a vine around the part of his arm that wasn't missing.

He also mentioned that Mum had four, a rising sun on red clouds for Akatsuki, the trust Kanji for Dad, a book and Katana next to one another for Me and an arrow for my older sister.

It was cool to find all this out but it made me spend a while looking into what I wanted to get.

* * *

**AN: Still though, the least $150k for an A-rank is wild, I mean it makes sense, but like fuck.**


	23. Arc 4-5 Down Time 2

**AN: Here's two more chapters, mostly because they're short and I didn't feel right combining them into one because of the time frame they're set in.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Pestilence  
****Down time part 2**

* * *

Naruto was leaving the village today, I wasn't sure how I felt about it because it did mean that I wouldn't see him for three years, but at the same time I didn't talk to the kid often and the last time we were in extended contact was the land of snow mission. On top of that it meant time was a thing and that the world was in fact still moving, I was glad for that. It meant Akatsuki was going to be starting school or the academy, though if I had to guess she would be going to normal school seeing as Mum and Dad didn't like what had become of me so far.

I understood that perspective completely though, I was scarred all over my body not to mention constant life threatening injuries and situations. I definitely won't be letting my kids be shinobi that's for sure, this lifestyle is hell and I don't think I'd want them doing it.

Samurai/Kenjutsu or Kyudo sure.

Both Kenjutsu and Kyudo are good fun and they let you meet a ton of different people as well as just build your character, they provided exercise and philosophies and all that.

Anyway, my non existent metaphorical children aside I was going to try get Akatsuki to come along with me to Kyudo seeing as that's going to start taking over more of my time along side possibly becoming an instructor to help Ume out, she did have another woman who helped her with that but she had taken time off to raise kids and so Ume herself was the only person around to teach. Obviously that was a lot of work for her when she had her own child to look after and it wasn't like Uncle Matsuda had enough know how to take up a position.

Hm, I suppose really I ought to think about whether I try to become a chunin or not before I officially stop being a shinobi and start living a relatively safer life. I honestly didn't know if I wanted that, I mean it would be nice to say that I reached that point and all, but at the same time I have to do another Chuunin exam unless the Hokage sees fit to bestow a field promotion to me after a recommendation from Sensei or any other Jonin I end up alongside on a mission. Speaking of the exams though, there was going to be one in Sunagakure soon between us, them, Kusa and I think Ame might have a few chips in it, not that I think Ame is going to do all that well in the desert. That made me think though I think the land of waves finally got their new Mizukage, some lady named Mei? I wasn't too sure about the details, just what Sensei said to me.

Talking about this all though… brings me back around to Sasuke.

That knucklehead always managed to wriggle his way back into my head, my sister asks about him every now and again. It wasn't helping me forget about him at the moment, not to mention a few days ago Naruto came to me when Hinata, Sensei and I had got together for training and he promised to bring Sasuke back once he came back from his trip with Jiraiya. I had blown the kid off a little because I had been trying to just leave it where it was, the guy left despite everything. I still hope he comes out fine though, next time I see him, if he can't put a hole through a mountain then I'll be really annoyed he wasted his time with the snake only to still be weaker than his brother.

I think it's important too, if he actually can't do something similar I'm going to be dissapointed.

**[Cleaning Out The Closet]**

I have far too many weapons in my room, I have four different swords, a Kusarigama, two Kyudo bows along with their arrows in a quiver.

Well it was no armoury but it definitely cluttered my room up, I haven't used the Kusarigama yet, I never got the chance to sit down and learn how to use it. When I do finally have it down though you'll just have to call me Baiken Shishido, though I suppose I have been replicating Baiken's look this entire time haven't I? maybe I'm no Musashi but rather Baiken?

Anyway that aside, I was planning on cleaning my room up, that was the point of me listing off the arsenal laying around in it. The swords were on my floor and leaning in the corner of the room, the sickle was on my desk and the bows were already on racks on the wall, so I didn't need to put anything towards them. The blades though… where should I…?

Glancing around my room a bit more I mentally placed the weapons around until I figured out where I wanted them, eventually I settled on making a rack for the swords to lean on and to put the Kusarigama up on my bookshelf out of the way. I went out to the shed that sat in the back of our yard and spent a few hours trying my hardest to put together something at least vaguely usable as a rack.

When that was done I left the house and went to the training field that I knew our team was meeting at today.

I headed to the training grounds we used often enough. When I got there Sensei was smoking a cigarette talking to his girlfriend who decided to leave once she caught sight of me. There was something on my mind I wanted to ask about so that's how I started our conversation.

"Hey you Sensei? ever wonder what happened to Zabuza and Haku? The two that we fought in Wave? Cause I kind of want to talk to Zabuza about his sword and stuff, might be able to score some lessons or something." I asked standing up and stretching in preparation for my own training.

"That was the guy with the bandages and the big sword wasn't it? And the other guy was the one Naruto thought was attractive?" Asuma asked back, I nodded. "From what I hear Zabuza got killed and I haven't heard anything about the Ice kid."

"Wait, really?" he nodded. "Shit that sucks, eh well I guess I'll just have to wait for another member of the Mist swordsman to teach me shit… I wonder if I can make Kisame my pen pal?" I watched Asuma try to stifle his laughter somewhat at hearing the fishmans name.

While we waited for Hinata to get here- I was early after all- I was walking around looking at all the damage we had caused the place over the year we were a team, yet again I was reminded of one of Sasuke and my fights we had. He wanted to go off at full tilt.

…

_The ground burst into a hellscape in a flash of orange and red engulfing the spot I had just been in before using the substitution jutsu leaving a log that had a piece of paper on it that read 'Better luck next time', you might ask why it was that my sub logs might have that on it and that's because I thought it would be funny if they all had different quotes to distract and confuse people. This normally wasn't the case when I sparred with my team because Sasuke always made them explode with his fire jutsu, let alone those few times he tried to use Chidori on me and made some bullshit up about how he knew that I could get away from it._

_I charged my body with chakra and launched forward at blinding speeds bringing my Nodachi down in a slash narrowly missing tearing right through Sasuke's chest, instead the blade left a laceration on his stomach and a tear in his shirt all the while he had leapt backwards out of the range of the already far too long blade. The closest we came to conversing let alone saying words were a variety of grunts, neither of us even named off jutsu when we performed them, only letting the other figure it out based on hand-signs. I chased after him sheathing my blade and whipping out several kunai in a matter of milliseconds trying my hardest to keep him on his toes as he bounced back around blood red eyes keeping up with my movements better than his body could at times, I had removed my weights and so had he so our fight was that of immeasurable speeds to the untrained eye and even someone in our graduating class would have problems keeping up with it._

_I had seen him fight more than he had seen me fight, though that just meant he fought me just as often, so he was well versed in my tactics and skills as we bounded around the opening meeting in short confrontations of heavy blows often creating kick up while we locked eyes, though his Genjutsu were some of the highest tier we were likely to encounter I had started to build up a resistance. Yet despite this they were great for temporarily distracting me to get a good hit in._

_Running though hand seals as though our thoughts coincided, though I knew he was reading my movements with his Sharingan, with the last seal I blew out an enormous whirlwind that engulfed and shut down his inferno of a giant fireball. The flames were spat out everywhere in the wake of the cyclone splashing the both of us in them resulting in another substitution, this log read 'look up' to where I had actually been launched up to and was now hurtling towards my avenger teammate as he ran through far too familiar hand seals and I heard the sound of chirping birds as he began to run building up speed for the jump to meet me halfway, using my wind chakra training to its fullest I churned and morphed the air around me until it changed my course to that of a nearby tree that I landed in grabbing a branch with one arm and throwing myself back into the opening, gazing up the black silhouette fell my way with the screeching still in his wake._

_getting out of the way Sasuke crashed straight into another substitution log that read 'I'm glad you missed me so much.' There was a short laugh off to the side of the opening where Sensei was._

_As the Uchiha started to move again I noticed something off and immediately stopped where I was and Sasuke seemed to get what I was looking at and slowed down to a halt before we walked up to one another and I shook his hand, he made to swipe at my head as I laughed it off._

_"Damn this bloody thing gets in the way all the time- I was about to win!" Sasuke said eyes back to their normal onyx as they glared at the three tomoe design that was etched into his shoulder/neck as it slowly receded from being wrapped around his apparent skin._

…

Wait… no. that was wrong wasn't it? That fight happened I know it did, but maybe…?

It was wrong…

_My memories were all jumbled and confused- Ugh!_ My hands clutched my head getting handfuls of my hair.

"Takezou? You alright there?" Sensei's voice broke me from my thoughts.

"I- I..." sighing heavily I tried to find the words. "No… no I don't think I am- sorry Sesnei, I'm going home- Tell Hinata that I wasn't feeling well." he gave me a knowing smile before I turned to leave.

"Alright, I will. Stay safe Takezou." I could hear the concern in his voice as I walked away.

I didn't make it home though and it was because I spent three hours walking around the village, I ended up at my grandparents workshop and storefront, walking inside the workshop where Dad was sitting on a stool watching Masamune write out the details to a new sword order.

**[How Much Of It Was True]**

It was late in the afternoon now, Dad had gone home and I was now headed to the main gate where Naruto was going to be leaving from with the Sannin.

My earlier breakdown was behind me, but it was a problem that wasn't just going to fade. This was something deeper than that, something more ingrained into my being that I wouldn't be able to do anything about.

Speaking of something I couldn't understand nor do anything about I still wasn't sure what was making my hair more silver than it was, and I know for sure that it is now too. My family all got together not too long after I woke up from the coma to get a photo done, and if I compared my hair in that picture to the one that I got signed by Koyuki the silver was getting thicker so to say. It was worrying for sure, but again its not like I knew entirely what was causing it. Maybe it was connected to my lapse earlier when it fumbled up that memory, who knows?

Passing shops and stalls as the sun slowly passed overhead made me think about those books I burned a week or three back- whenever that was, I've forgotten. I did it because they'd become redundant and at the same time they just didn't mean anything to me anymore. Hollow writings of a man trying his hardest to cling to all that he could to keep some semblance of his life tied together, I've come too far to look at all those writings and think I was the same person. Hell I was never the same person, I've got dark skin, bloody red and silver hair, amber eyes and whatever else that distinguishes me from the person who wrote them.

I keep talking about what I want to do, what I don't want, but I never take a moment to observe everything without the noise of all that other stuff. Maybe that's why I don't like Naruto? Because he knows what he wants and is adamant about doing it. Where I have no goals beyond living… I've had this conversation a million times and everytime I can't find anything that satisfies me, nothing to bolster my desire for more… Was I content? Who fucking knows because I still can't figure that one out.

Distracted in my melancholy I arrived at the gate, Jiraiya, Naruto and his team were there, Hinata was there but she was hiding behind a post watching him from afar- never strong enough to take up his flank. I approached my love struck teammate making her jump from the sudden interaction as I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"You'll never catch up if you can't stand beside him, Hime." I said, giving her a small smile.

"I-I i'll be there!" Hinata said back with a fire brightening in her translucent eyes, a fierceness rising in her resolve.

"Come on then, let's go send off your Hero then, how's he supposed to remember what he's fighting for if the heroine doesn't give him something to remember her bye?" I said, taking the flustered girl's hand and walking over to where Tsunade and Jiraiya were chatting, Naruto was getting an earful from Sakura about remembering his hygiene while he was gone.

Giving her a slight push on the back as we approached I spoke up again. "Hey Naruto, looking to leave without seeing us off are you?" He turned to us with an enormous smile that was brighter than the sun above us.

"I'd Never do that!" he said, sounding vaguely offended at the idea. "Anyway Hey Hinata! Take! I'm glad I did get to see you before I left! The pervy sage was gonna have us leave without seeing anyone! Can you believe that!?" his yelling never ceased to make me wince as Hinata seemed extra flustered at the attention mumbling something in return.

The conversation carried on for another ten minutes before Jiraiya cut it short to finally leave, we watched the backs of the two as they left the village. Kakashi had left when we showed up seeing his opportunity, Tsunade left just before Jiraiya called it leaving Hinata, Sakura and I stood watching. Not before long though Sakura left, I walked with Hinata back to her house to hang out for a little while, after all I missed training so I didn't get to.

With two knuckle skulled morons gone the village was- well the same really, but…. Whatever.

I was still getting used to it all after fourteen years wasn't I? How much of this did I really understand, and how much still went over my head?

I feel like I'm missing something important...

* * *

**AN:**


	24. Arc 4-5 Down Time 3

**AN: Much like how this arc is named down time its really just a few chapters winding down from the movie before moving into another one where the events after pick up fairly fast as the story comes to its close.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: How Long Til It's Over?  
****Down time part 3**

* * *

It's been a week since Naruto left with Jiraiya off to train and write smut- or whatever Jiraiya actually does with his time.

I was starting something pretty important today though, or at least I'd say so, Ume was going to start giving me proper lessons as to her actual Kenjutsu style as well as the village standard so that I could master it properly and begin my steps towards becoming an instructor. I'll still be taking missions though, at least until I start working properly because otherwise I'm paying my parents board at my own will, and Ume said I had to pay her for the lessons to teach me to make me ready for it because it did take time out of her day to do it after all.

"Aunty?" I was confused watching said woman tie up her dark hair as she walked over to a Bokken rack amber eyes blazing like an inferno.

"Alright, first lesson Nephew/student of mine!" she threw me one of the wooden swords taking one for herself and looked me dead in the eyes. "I've been teaching you how to wield a sword for as long as you can probably remember- which I'm grateful you did continue by the way- Now that you want to become an instructor though it matters a great deal that you start to learn, understand and become the embodiment of the tenants relating to Bushido and other styles."

"Okay."

"Unlike when I had you learning on the side of my actual classes, I'll start with something you might like- its a book written by a famous swordsman from the warring states period before the villages were formed." She paused for dramatic effect. "The Book Of Five Rings!" Ume happily pulled said book out of her Kimono top.

What?

"Huh? Do you know it already or something?" She said, looking somewhat disheartened by the prospect.

"I- I..." how? What did this mean?- Musashi existed here?

"Come on Takezou. Answer me." her expression was slowly becoming a frown.

"I- ah no I haven't read it before I'd heard of it before just never seen it in person and all the stores I visited never had copies." I responded, which was the truth, it was hard to come by them, or at least of normal martial arts books- this was an entirely different ball game.

"Yeah I can understand why, this is an original print copy that I got when I was a little girl. They don't print them anymore either- which is probably why you've never seen it."

"Is this what we're starting with then?" I asked only to get laughed at.

"Amaterasu no! That would be stupid, no this is what you're working towards! What we're starting is something simple." she stepped to the left of where she was putting the book back in her Kimono. "Nah what we're learning about is how to keep a conversation while fighting as well as just how to pick out exactly what is wrong with how someone moves and how to correct that. So… dodge-" she swung at me and training began.

I brought the bokken up blocking the overhead strike.

I had a feeling this first part was just an excuse for her to spar me again if I had to be honest, I had no doubt she'd actually start teaching me properly after she broke something, be that my body, the bokken or the stuff around us.

After about five minutes of her kicking my shit in, we stopped and while I was recovering she started talking again.

"So tell me what do you think was wrong with your style and how you did? Can you pick how you fight apart for me so that we will have a basis to work off of." She put her own bokken in one of the straps on the hakama waiting for me.

With that we continued to do something similar for the next couple hours until Ume decided to mix it up and slowly change the elements of how we did it.

Dad came by around the time when we were finishing up and he walked back home with me, he had originally come over to ask Uncle Matsuda about something but found out what I was up to and stuck around to watch the end of it.

"You look pretty happy with yourself, huh?" Dad's voice broke whatever thoughts I was having bringing my mind forth to where his smile was.

"Heh, yeah..." I couldn't wait to continue the next lesson, sparring and actual practical skills? What else could I want?

"This is what you've wanted isn't it?" Nobuyuki asked- I never really used his name did I? I used mums and basically everyone else's, but never his…

"I guess so, it is nice to finally not have to worry about being a Ninja too much." and that was the truth, I only took small missions with Hinata and Sensei, but otherwise our team was kinda broken up seeing as Sasuke was gone and of our remaining members Hinata was Chuunin, I was never really going to stay a Shinobi and Sensei was in a position where he would either have to take up another team or continue along with ours for as long as he could get away with it.

"Well, don't forget about your old man then, will you?" he said, sounding somewhat distant.

"I never would, just because we don't as much time to hang out anymore doesn't mean I'll forget you." I stated firmly, I wouldn't and couldn't forget him. "Do you want to go and train right now Dad?" He stared at me for a moment.

"Sure why not? What, thinking you can beat me now? Must have gained a ton of confidence for you to want this." He laughed lightly putting his single arm around my shoulders as we changed directions.

Normally you needed to reserve a training ground for use, unless it was one that had been designated for a Jonin and their genin team. Nobuyuki already knew where team ten's training grounds were so we were on our way there. The walk there was nice enough though. He was asking me about what I talked to my grandparents about back when I had been taken there during the Exams seeing as he never actually got to hear about it. I told him about what Koutetsu talked about relating to the blades and our relationship with them, like I said though it was nice to really talk with him for once and really sit back, we never really got a chance to talk. Be it my schedule or just never really deciding to go out of our ways for it.

Stepping into the clearing where I had spent a year or so training with my team up until this point, I still couldn't remember how old I was, I think I graduated at twelve, which meant my birthday was either before or during the Chunin Exam- which I already knew because of the party we had. But it's also been like eighteen months since we became Ninja if I had to guess… so I was fourteen then? And that meant that my sister was… four? Or five? I should probably ask when we get back home huh?

**[Musashi-Dono Was Real]**

A few days later when I was back with my aunt doing lessons I could still feel the beat down Dad gave me in the spar, for all the training I had and fights I'd experienced I wasn't anything next to him and the man still only had _**One Arm!**_ I guess that's why he's a Jonin… retired or not it was scary.

For the lessons though we always skipped a day so that I could put together any questions I had about how to teach or how to work things and such. Well that and so Ume could focus on her Dojo and family properly without worrying about what we were meant to be doing that day, teaching wasn't easy after all and she had gotten some papers and things done up for me so I had homework. I think she had gone to the academy to see some of the teachers there about what they did as well.

So far with the learning how to teach people martial arts and just how to be analytical about all the faults of my or anyone else's use of stances and whatnot has been fun, sure we've only had a few lessons, but it was enjoyable.

I've been going to Kyudo on the weekends too and looking forward to having a filled week of shit that isn't ninja related for once.

Y'know if I had done this all before becoming a Shinobi and doing all those missions and the exams I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, because there wouldn't be anything to compare it to, whereas now I have more than enough to compare. It beats that sex worker protection D rank we did, I still can't beleive we had to do that.

Also all those times I got hit in the head training must've done more damage than I realised because my sister was only three don't know why I thought she was nearly five… maybe it was because she could talk enough that I just assumed? And I mean I've noticed kids of a similar age group in the ninja households do tend to grow up faster for some reason, maybe it was that, who knows?

I was walking at the moment, I didn't really know where exactly, but I didn't really have a goal in mind, heh… kinda like this life so far huh?

Surrounded by a dense amount of foliage I guessed I was in a park, my feet carried me along a dirt path that winded around through trees opening up to a small area where a large stone staircase was. With trees overhanging above the several flights of stairs heading up a hill, deciding to keep going I began to realise as I moved my feet up that something was off- sure it could be any number of normal simple things, but I couldn't place it. What I knew though was that I was interested in finding out what was at the top of the stairs, I kind of hoped that it was something simple and completely inane and I wouldn't get anything from it. Why? You might ask, that would be because it was nice to reflect, and I know I do that alot, but it was a necessary part of my life- how else would I find myself?

Certainly not from swinging a sword or loosing arrows from a bow while chanting to myself and engulfing myself in philosophies. No, definitely not from those, they were what helped me stay together and bind what I already had.

Who was I, if not a person who did everything he could to push my ideas where I could?

Reaching the final point of the incline and my head peering over the stairs I was impressed to see a beautiful Shinto shrine stood with Sakura and Plum blossom trees surrounding it and the premises, all of them being accentuated by the sun that hung high above in the sky, its light making everything look almost fantasy like or ethereal even. There was a dirt and stone path that lead up to the main shrine building as well as the other buildings I assumed where either where the priests and priestess' lived and whatnot, I noticed a few priestesses in the background cleaning the buildings, a Priest was talking to a younger looking girl dressed as a priestess next to a well- they being the closest drew my immediate attention.

I knew though once I started approaching them that I was looking forward to talking to them for the next hour or so, or even just as long as I could get away with.

The time I ended up spending at the shrine was probably far longer than any normal person would have spent there.

I asked about just about anything I could trying to get all the answers to my questions I could, not to mention the fact that I ended up just talking about the gods of Shintoism and the stories surrounding them with the Main Priest- "Hayato Gouzen" a pretty nice guy.

His daughter saw her opportunity to escape and ditched after my first few questions and all.

Again I really did spend an exuberant amount of time there talking and just taking in the sight of the Shrine itself seeing as there weren't any down in the village proper at all and this was the first time I was seeing Shrine of this size, let alone in the village at this point.

* * *

**AN:**


	25. Arc 5- Pocket Full of Shells Part 1

**AN: Wassup, so Take gets a new outfit for this arc while its happening and I just thought I'd give some refernces for why it looks the way I described it, that being because its based off of Ozymadias' outfit in F/GO as well as Bayek's normal outfit in Assassin's Creed Origins, because I really like both of their outfits.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Fashion Sense**  
**Arc 5 Part 1**

* * *

I was here again.

In the Uchiha district.

A ghost town within the lively village of the leaves we were supposed to call home and defend with all our lives, not that I ever really thought like that. I didn't care for the village, I didn't have a love for its inhabitants, I thought nothing of the Shinobi above my rank, I held no allegiance to the Hokage.

How could I offer my love to something that never seemed to share it back?

It wasn't like I knew Lady Tsunade all that well, it wasn't like I got to chat with Hiruzen before he went and died against Orochimaru. Obviously I never met Lords First, Second and Fourth so there wasn't anything for me there either, yet I was expected to think that they were my heroes for being grand people. All I could see was a foolish man with enough power to stomp out the moon if he wanted, someone who's grudge got the better of them and sacrificed himself to give his student the position. Then a man that was quickly overwhelmed by the truths of the shinobi world and the actions he had to make and pawned them off on his loon friend, after that it was the kid who was too smart for his own good and yet entirely too willing to kill himself leaving his son behind if it meant removing a beast and finally a drunk that while she's sobered up she's still dependent on her old teammates for help in spite of her strong personality.

None of that was really relevant though was it?

Because I was here again.

The Uchiha district, the ghost town within the village hidden in the leaves.

I had come over to see how he was doing and asked if he wanted to hang out or train, I even waited at his door for twenty odd minutes after knocking and calling his name before I remembered where he had gone.

I was still waiting here even, staring out at the sky from his balcony.

The sun was high in the sky blaring its midday glare down upon the world with few clouds in sight to block out the sky and cast shade.

Turning around and heading back through the sliding door into the bland almost spartan like room I noticed something I hadn't seen before, there was a letter sitting on the low bookshelf under the window of his room. It was next to his framed photo of our team- Asuma was behind us with a big smile, his hands resting on mine and Sasuke's shoulders, I was on the right side and Sasuke was on the left with Hinata in the middle. He was scowling at something while I had my hand retracting from tapping Sasuke's shoulder while I laughed.

Picking up the envelop I realized it had something written on it.

"To Takezou" was all it said.

I opened it up and found a piece of paper that was blank aside from the center of the page where it just had-

"_Sumimasen deshita_" or "I'm sorry for what I did."

At the very bottom in the left corner was his name signing it.

His pristine handwriting.

Man.

I almost wish I hadn't spotted this and it had gone on unnoticed for the rest of time, until the day he returned. It reminded me of something I heard a long time ago, it didn't really make any sense but at the same time it kind of did.

_Never say goodbye. If you don't say goodbye, then you aren't really gone, you just, aren't here right now._

He had said goodbye with this letter though.

A sigh escaped me as I sat down on the side of the bed and put the letter back where it was.

Well at least this wasn't as bad as the few times my mind has gone blank and I walk around the Uchiha district talking to him and having conversations, a bird would chirp and I'd be brought back to the present and realize that it was all in my head, that I had just walked around chatting with no one for an hour. It was one of those things you didn't want people to find out about because then they'd know how crazy or off kilter you really were, so no one knew about this. No one.

Though when I looked back on them it made sense that they were in my head because I could see colour in both of my eyes, whereas in real life here I hadn't been able to see colour since around the time I went to the Land of Snow. because as it happens I lost most of the ability to see colour in my left eye back then and now it was shades of black, white and grey in it. I hadn't told anyone and it was pretty annoying whenever colour came up and I had to fill out reports and stuff where often it was a requirement to give descriptions of people we fought.

Luckily for me though I had a team that was willing to remind me of what their descriptions were.

It didn't matter now anyway.

Without looking back I walked out of the apartment closing the door behind me and locking it, walking for a few minutes led me down the stairs of the building to the ground. Passing several small planters filled with roses.

Not before long I was back out onto the main street where the sounds of village life filled my ears again.

**[Still Looking Back]**

It was a few weeks later now and I was finishing up a lesson with my Aunt where she continued to show me how to teach children or more specifically she showed me how to keep their attention and make learning fun.

She said she had some kids in mind for me to teach, said that they had signed up recently and that having kids that were new would be better for me because I would grow and learn with them. Another plus side being that they wouldn't know any better if I was flubbing it.

So there was that at the least.

Anyway I was leaving my Aunts wasn't I?

There was something to be said about that though wasn't there? I wasn't going straight home from Ume's like I might normally, I was headed for the training ground Sensei usually asked us to head to before missions for that exact reason.

I was in my Konoha blues so to say, normally when I was at Ume's I wore a Gi or Kimono depending on what I found first but that was mostly because I didn't have many different outfits and Kaede brought me Kimono's all the time despite not wearing them herself. I still don't know why, the only reason my original Ninja outfit was normal clothes was because I brought them myself.

Maybe I should ask her about why?

Actually...

Didn't I wear one back at my grandparents' when we went for that fishing trip?

It was Mum's supposedly wasn't it? Whatever happened to it? I had been wearing it when the explosion happened after all.

…

That's not important is it?

Right so the training grounds.

Sensei wanted to do a B-Rank with us, he didn't say who our third was going to be so I was assuming that it would just be Him, Hinata and me on this one. When I finally did arrive though what I found was Sensei smoking while standing under the tree I had sat up in so many times, Hinata was waiting next to him reading a book I didn't recognise.

"I thought I told you to get dressed in clothes for hot weather?" Asuma said as I got closer.

"And I told you I needed to buy some because all I have are Kimono's." I replied as I reached into my pocket for my wallet which I had brought along with me.

"I thought you brought clothes for that mission to the Land of Snow, what happened to those?"

"Yeah but I don't really feel like wearing heavy insulated clothing while in the desert- and not to mention this seems like a lot of effort to travel to Sunagakure just to pick up some rich lord." waving my hands flippantly I watched as Sensei shrugged at me.

"Well hurry up then- we have to be gone within half an hour." Asuma pointed at me with his right hand motioning for me to leave.

I turned and left without even getting a chance to actually say hello to either of them let alone ask about who we were supposed to be getting for a third or whatever.

**[Dress Code]**

It took me a few minutes to leap through the village to one of the closest shinobi stores that I could find.

Once I was actually in it and I started looking around I immediately gravitated to a small section that had a bunch of highgrade material desert wear, I snagged a white hooded shawl that went down to my waist then found some similarly white with black and gold accented gloves that went up to the middle of my forearm that had padding for armour and lastly I snagged these slightly baggy black shozoku pants that were padded inside for armour as well though they had a white skirt like thing that was open at the front assumably for movement.

I also took up the opportunity to buy a new whet stone because I had needed a new one for a while, aside from that though I did buy a Chokuto with a black and gold ribboned hilt/handle. I brought a new sword because I had a feeling any sword I brought wasn't going to make it back, so a new sword and some ninja wire for those bracelets that dispensed it since those were super useful last time.

There was a changing area for trying stuff on in the shop so I put all of it on before I walked out, the sword was sitting on my hip strapped onto the waist of the pants and the hood was down once again reminding I needed a haircut- now that my wallet was significantly lighter I left to the store, went home to drop my clothes off and quickly threw what I needed into my backpack. I put the new wire into the bracelets then set out saying bye to my parents as I left.

By the time I got to the main village gate it was midday and my team was there along with team seven making me think about the fact that this happened at least twice now, where we had been paired up with them. I know Hinata had done a few missions with them and I had done a couple.

Everyone was dressed in light clothing, even Sensei and Kakashi were wearing thinner versions of their usual gear. Though I realised I stood out.

I stood out alot.

Why was I the only one dressed for the dessert instead of just a hot day in the land of fire?

Sensei was smirking and I could see Kakashi trying to not look in my direction.

I already paid for the outfit so it's not like I was going to return it all.

"Takezou what's that on your chest?" Asuma said his interest was taken from my fashion choices to my bare chest- yes I was shirtless, the desert is hot and I didn't want to be wearing sweaty clothing.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I was confused as I stopped in front of him while I ignored Kiba laughing and Sakura's wide eyes that seemed to have found something that surprised her, Hinata's face was flushed.

"This-" he poked my chest parting the already slightly open shawl.

Looking down I found something I had forgotten I had.

It was a snake slithering up an arrow that had its head replaced with a rose, around the snake and arrow was branches and vines with more flowers- this was in the middle of my chest. The arrow was for Kyudo obviously but the rest of it was just because it looked cool. My tattoo, I also had a blue monarch butterfly on my left bicep, but that one wasn't visible at the moment.

"Right, I forgot about that" and I had, it wasn't like I looked at myself shirtless in mirrors ever so I had just forgotten.

"How do you forget about something like that? It must've taken hours." Sensei said, baffled.

"Well it took multiple sessions other than that I really don't know what to tell you, I just forgot…. Can we go now? I'd really rather not continue having everyone stare at me like this."

Eventually we finally left on the three day journey to the Land of Wind.

The first day of running was fine and nothing happened thankfully, plus I got to cook our meals at night so I was happy to be back doing that again. It had been a long time since I had cooked on a long mission before, the last time was probably when Sasuke was around. While we were traveling though I did talk with Kiba and he was telling me about how he had seen some of the posters for the movie that we helped film.

Apparently they had a few of them with all of us on them in the background of Koyuki and whoever else was on the front cover. He was disgruntled about it because the one they had of him was him and Akamaru doing fang over fang, the way it was done looked stupid from what he said- though when he described the image they had of me was the one of me carrying Koyuki when we were ontop of the train tunnel watching the samurai die. So my face was wearing a particularly fierce expression in it, he also said the different posters with each of us on them had nicknames his said 'Fanged duo' and mine said 'Crimson Samurai' the others titles were just as bad.

**[Butterfly Effect]**

"What are you doing Takezou?" Asuma asked when we had all just finished eating, I had cleaned up the dishes with the help of Hinata and Sakura.

"Just sanding the plate of my Hitai-ate so that the sun stops reflecting off of it seeing as that gives you away and it seems like the opposite of what we'd want." I continued brushing at the steel, removing the shininess to it.

"Wait what happened to your bandana?" he motioned to the plate that I had attached to a small piece of leather that I had sewn onto the shawl and seeing as that was in my lap- yes I did have a shirt on, I threw spare clothes in my bag before leaving.

"Uh it got torn up remember? I was going to replace it but didn't get around to it- surely you noticed that I just haven't been wearing it right?" He made a noise of agreement before flicking out a cigarette and lighting it.

"How are you holding up though?" he asked after a few minutes of silence passed between us.

"What do you mean?" it was a rather open question after all.

"With what's happened of course, I know you hated what happened with the other kids not telling you about Sasuke leaving when he took off as well as that though, you've been more distant with 'Hime' and I." he said Hime name in a lighter tone, it had become a bit of a joke at some point that Hinata was the princess and we were her guards. I don't remember why either though.

"Yeah… I did, still do even." I paused for a moment sighing and putting the shawl down. "But what made it worse was just that I put so much energy into loving our team and he ended up burning us for it- to me he was my brother, Hinata is my sister and you're like an older brother if not like a second dad though that might just be the similarities in your personalities." there was so much more to it.

"Right… you know sometimes I get reminded that you actually are just a kid, you spend so much time acting like someone so much older and with more experience ever ready to lend your mind to them- yet there's that smidgen of your personality that slips out amongst the cracks and we see you really are a kid." he reminded me of something, but beyond that I realized we were almost having different conversations.

"Sensei- no Asuma. What do you do about the cracks and nicks? Or when the blood has begun to rust the blade but you know that you can't sharpen it because it'll only break it due to how fragile it has become." I posed the cracked blade idea to him because he reminded me of it.

"Cracks in the blade huh? That sounds just like you doesn't it? Well as for my answer I guess despite how good I thought my skills were if I knew it wasn't something I could fix on my own I'd find someone to help me do it- sometimes blades are just too important to be replaced right?" he offered a smile as his hand landed on my shoulder.

"Guess you're right… maybe I should do something similar." After another few minutes of silence I spoke again. "I should be off to sleep for now then shouldn't I?"

"Yup, I'll get you when your watch starts." with that Sensei left me to my devices or lack thereof to get some rest from all the running we'd been doing.

"Oh! Before you go Sensei- would you be able to show me the hand seals for the Shadow Clone Jutsu?" it was something I had considered using but always forgot to ask about.

"Sure I'll teach you them tomorrow morning." I went to bed after that.

When my mind finally drifted off into the land of dreams it was invaded by images.

_**Crimson**_

_The spray of blood splashed into my eyes and covered my face as I stumbled back from the scene before me.  
_

* * *

**AN: Later.**


	26. Arc 5 - Pocket Full of Shells 2

**AN: A reminder to watch the land of moon naruto movie before jumping into this chapter, unless you don't care to know how this arc was originally meant to go.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Swordplay was like a dance**  
**Arc 5 Part 2**

* * *

The land of Wind was just how I remembered it from a previous visit.

Windy and full of sand.

The occasional animal or plant and most importantly a temperature change that was so sudden it nearly put us all on our asses.

It was early morning when we reached the border of it with the land of fire's border so we still had a good day of running before we made it to where we were supposed to meet with this client, who I still knew nothing about aside from their wealth. He was paying us quite an exorbitant amount just to guard him out of the land of wind to- well actually I didn't know that part either.

But at least my outfit was doing its job, we happened to be running through a heavy patch of wind at the moment and it kicked up a lot of sand. So my shawl and shemagh that I had were doing their jobs, other than that though my body was certainly cooler than the last time I came where I almost blacked out on our journey across the desert to Sunagakure.

Along the way though we crossed paths with an enormous snake that was hurtling itself across the desert heading somewhere that didn't seem very obvious to us. I asked either Sensei's if they knew anything about the wildlife, but they were both unhelpfully uninformed about the wildlife here.

It made me wonder what else lurked in the dark crevices of the land of wind.

Though I never got that answered because around midday we came across a massive long caravan of vehicles making their way through the desert and I was once again reminded that there was some pretty cool tech out there in the world even if we didn't see it all that often.

I could hear Kakashi, Asuma and Sakura talking to someone so I turned and found a fairly plump well dressed man who was introducing himself as 'Prince Michiru'.

Which meant he was our employer.

He got all creepy and close to Sakura taking her hand and caressing it saying something I didn't catch when she put on a sweet smile before there was a subtle _crack_ as her hand tightened around his and he pulled away from her- Kakashi made some joke about dangerous flowers often being the bright and colourful kind.

Rolling my shoulders as they had a bout of stiffness I pulled the shemagh down from being over my mouth and nose as well as the hood of the shawl. I suddenly felt a wave of heat intensify its feeling on my face making me squint my eyes.

When my eyes refocused and I was ever gratefully returned to noticing the colour difference again I heard Kakashi and Asuma introducing us all to the Prince.

"This is Takezou- he might look like someone twice his age but he is the same age as the other kids." Asuma said when he got to me.

"I resent that- it's not my fault my face has aged poorly and has scars on it." I joked while closing my left eye because it was bothering me, it made me consider getting out the cloth my hitai-ate came on out so that I could just cover my left eye so it stopped bothering me.

"It is your fault it happened, I kept telling you how to prevent it but you didn't listen and now you have those huge stress lines on your face." Sensei corrected me and I laughed it off with a shrug.

After a few more minutes of introductions and working out what would be the best positions for everyone while we traveled we were on the road. Team seven was around the middle to the back of the caravan leaving the front back to the middle up to us. I wasn't all that worried about the likelihood that anything would happen so I was laying on the roof of the cart I was guarding while listening to the sounds of the desert around us as well as the clicks of our clients son's video game handheld.

Traveling was slow and I guess that was to be expected with such an enormous line of vehicles, I hadn't noticed anything going on aside from the prince and his son having idle conversations when the prince wasn't learning about Ninja and our hierarchy from Asuma.

This was probably another one of those times when I should have been putting more effort into our job but it was kind of hard when there were so many of us let alone the fact that we had two scent trackers and Hinata. Still hot though, it had managed to get hotter than it already was and I laughed at Kiba about it because he had said my outfit wasn't going to do anything in the hot weather yet there he was with a black leather jacket making pools of sweat- there was probably going to be a river trailing us because of him. The girls had decided to wear what were effectively thinner versions of their normal outfits and I think Akamaru thought he was dying because the poor dog had gotten pretty huge recently and had a fair amount more fur so he wasn't in all that great shape.

From what I understood and overheard though we were taking the Prince back to the Land of Moon or whatever you wanted to call it, and after looking at the map Sensei had I realized it was going to be like a month of traveling to get there. The place was south of the Land of Water, or roughly south-east of the Land of Tea… no wait it was east of it- I'm pretty sure it was. Maybe this heat is messing with my head?

I rolled my shoulders as I sat up and began stretching, breathing out a sigh of relief. I turned my head and body flickered off the roof of the cart stopping right in front of a gang of which there were six people holding weapons getting ready to attack.

Clearing my throat made them all jump out of their skin. "You can surrender or I'll make you wish you had." I offered them with a slight motion of my right hand before it landed in the natural position of resting on the hilt of the sword I had brought with me.

Ugh they raised their weapons at me- one was even swinging a sword.

Blocking the attack by raising my Chukuto in a reverse grip I parried it and instead of landing the riposte I kicked the man back into his friends hard enough that there was a very solid _thump_ when they crashed into the sand. I followed this up by moving around and making sure they were all unconscious before tying them up in rope and running along to help with the rest of the groups that were attacking near the front of the caravan that the drivers and passengers didn't seem to even notice.

This is going to keep happening from now on wasn't it?

**[Teenage Dirtbag]**

The desert tour we were doing went on for another day or two, occasionally we would have to deal with bandits or a few morons looking to get an easy score.

At the moment though we had settled on the edge of a massive desert plain that blended into an open area of rolling hills and grassy plains. Though we had all sat down to eat, Prince Michiru offered us the food that his cooks were making and so despite Sensei and Sakura being about to turn down the offer I took the prince up on it. Mostly because I wanted good food and because I wanted more recipes to add to my repertoire that was ever growing.

The chefs were all for talking about food while they were preparing the meals so that was nice of them to give me the time of day when they didn't have to, though one of them was actually super surprised to find that a Shinobi did something as mundane as cooking and loved it at that. It made me happy to break any preconceptions that they had of us, plus they were just really nice people. It wasn't often you ran into just genuine people when we worked but these guys were telling me about how they don't actually care about the pay for the job but rather the experience of cooking all the different meals and trying new things out all the time. It was one of those things where I was just invested in hearing what they had to say.

Another thing though was that like with most people they had assumed I was in a similar age range to Kakashi and Asuma based on my appearance, which was fair because I had so much visible scarring, the height, my greying hair and the stress lines or whatever you'd call them. Now that things had settled down though and everyone was eating with both Sensei's on guard around the camp that had been set up, I had a shift during the middle of the night so I was planning to nod off after eating.

The sleep I did get was pretty lackluster and I woke up with a sore back, but I decided to take the chance to try performing the shadow clone jutsu seeing as Sensei showed me how to do it.

Running through the hand seals I imagined the form of myself and waited for the clone to appear.

…

What the hell?

Where was it?

I looked around and I couldn't see it at all, there wasn't even one of those half dead malformed ones that Naruto did.

Alright.

Guess I'll do it later when I'm not meant to be doing a job.

Though my attempt at performing the jutsu had gone sour my mood was pretty good all things considered, it was probably because of the fact that the food we had was so good I was still beaming. Like I don't think I could put it to words how much good the food was, to think Michiru and his son eat like that all the time.

Man that sure would be nice to have meals like that all the time.

On to my shift I guess, all this thinking about food is going to make me hungry again and I'd rather not wake people up because my stomach was as loud as a lion.

**[Cloning Science]**

Over the next few days we traveled across the land of tea where we weren't attacked at all by comparison to the deserts of Wind where we were attacked pretty often.

I noticed Prince Michiru's kid playing some kid of video game while we were traveling through Wind and he seemed to like using a bow if his performance at a circus we stopped off at was anything to go off of, so I was beginning to consider asking about if he liked archery and seeing as I'm in a Kyudo class myself it would be cool to talk to him about it.

At the time I was sitting on the roof of the cart just behind the Prince's and his son, of whom I didn't know the name of was sitting on the back of his cart playing his game.

"Hey kid, you like archery right?" I asked.

He ignored me.

"I know you're probably going to continue not giving me the time of day but I just thought you might like some pointers-" I saw his eyes acknowledge me for a moment and that was all I needed. "I do archery as well- or more specifically I train in Kyudo, but it's archery either way."

Still he kept his focus on the game, yet his ears were perked in a way that I knew meant he was still listening to what I had to say even if he wasn't verbally acknowledging it.

I just sort of began talking, there wasn't necessarily a point where I ever thought to myself that I ought to stop or maybe even see if anyone cared, maybe I was just reiterating it all to myself to make sure I remembered what I had learned. But by the time I had run out of stuff to say an hour had passed and it seemed like a few more people were listening in than there was when I started, Sensei and Hinata had moved up towards us and now were within hearing range of what I had been talking about.

The Prince had his head out the window of the cart listening too.

Clearing my throat I realized that it was fairly dry after an hour straight of talking, so I got out the water canteen I had in my bag.

"That's all I can remember for now..." my voice trailed off as I started to feel uncomfortable with all the people focussing on me.

"And here I thought I was meant to be the teacher." Asuma said while blowing smoke from his cigarette.

I felt like that time Ume offered me a position at her Dojo as a teacher suddenly made sense. Though I think that was also because she just wanted help more than anything else.

Time continued on and my impromptu teaching skills being displayed was asked about by Sensei as he tried to get an answer out of me about how I had managed to give such a good description of forms and whatnot. I didn't even really know how so I just avoided answering the question.

Though as the day finished and rolled over onto a new morning we were making decent progress.

There was something to be said about the fact that the longer we went on and the days bled together and became indistinguishable from one another that I had begun to want for some kind of fight. I was feeling like I was missing out on throwing myself around in combat.

Maybe I had just reached a point where my skill level was stagnating because the average enemy I was likely to face was so subpar to our team that it was hardly a rush, and yet still I couldn't understand this bloodlust that had begun to rise in my mind, I mean I normally hated conflict or fighting unnecessarily. Was this job getting into my head in a way I had never considered?

**[Innate Teaching]**

Eventually we made it to a seaside town where we were told there would be a ship ready to take us on the voyage over to the land of moon.

I was thankful this job was getting close to done until someone came to the Prince and told him their royale yacht had been staved off due to poor weather and seafaring conditions, so they had arranged for a new boat to take him there. Though he didn't seem all that bothered by the news and almost immediately went off and had us follow him to a flower shop where he brought an entire cart of random flowers.

It was odd for sure.

Despite that though just Asuma and I were walking alongside his cart with the others all back down at the docs looking after all the stuff Michiru had brought, as for his cart though it was taken out of the city to a home that rested in the forest on a hillside next to the port town. I didn't hear what the prince talked about with his son, but the kid seemed pretty happy about something.

My outfit had long since become useless, it had been a good week or so since we left the desert. Sure where we were was nowhere near as hot but I didn't really have anything else to wear aside from that extra shirt I brought. Though I wasn't bothered to be wearing the outfit so far from the desert, because most people we passed seemed to take it at face value and assume I was from Cloud or Wind. Which was a fair guess based on my appearance alone I suppose.

The trip onto the hillside took Michiru's carriage around half an hour most of which was spent in silence, me and sensei ended up playing I-Spy though that was because I randomly started it up on my own out of boredom for what we were doing. So much of the journey had become stagnant at this point, which was normally a good thing and even something I would prefer but the aforementioned want for a fight was only growing.

I was almost sad that I hadn't been able to stay back with the stuff on the dock so that I could train the shadow clone jutsu some more. I had been able to make the tiniest amount of progress towards actually making a clone in the last few days so I was beginning to get excited about it, plus Sensei said that a clone could help half the time spent on learning things.

When we finally stopped outside the house though, the Prince practically leapt out and called the name of a woman who was presumably the one in front of us in a garden. She immediately ignored the rotund man and called for Hikaru, the prince's son, she hugged him and was confused by who the prince was and her shock was hard to hide when she heard him say he was Michiru. This led to her mentioning that he was skinny and now he was fat.

I tuned out what was happening around this point and went to look at the flowers Michiru had brought with him as his conversation traveled inside the house with his ex-wife and son. As well as this I walked over the cliff edge where the drop off went straight down into jagged rocks and the ocean. Asuma was watching the family reunion to make sure nothing untoward happened while I was doing this, not before long we were back on the road again heading towards the port. The mood of the prince and his son both much more somber than when we had arrived, from what Sensei told me later it was because Michiru had come to ask for his wife to come live with him again because he still loved her and offered a bunch of expensive stuff, but she declined because all she wanted was just for them to be together rather than always be thinking about money.

It was sunset when I had decided to take break from playing guard so I headed out onto the water and began running through old Kata I remembered from my time training under Ume, while I was doing them I realized I had begun to dance across the water flowing each strike with the sword into another like a stream of water.

Without really thinking about it I began to hum and occasionally sing the lyrics to a song I remembered while prancing across the water off the docs, I made sure no one was around when it started because I wasn't sure how I'd explain my dance like Kata.

"_Are you going to Scarborough Fair?_" the lyrics left my mouth easily like I was reciting something ingrained into my memory. "_Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme-_" humming the tune as I continued as I felt the shawl I was wearing flutter around as I ended up twirling around before filtering on into the next swing of the sword. My eyes were closed and had been since I started because it helped to get used to fighting blind when you could and it was because of this that when I heard someone's voice I was caught off guard and nearly fell through the water.

"You Shinobi really are weird." when my eyes looked around I caught sight of who had spoken Kiba and Akamaru were sitting on the edge of the dock eating, Kiba had a huge shit eating grin. Not to mention the fact that I realised Hikaru was sitting nearby to Kiba playing his video game or was looking at me now.

"Shut your mouth Kiba." I warned my eyes narrowing at him as he burst into loud laughter that echoed like howls.

"I c-can't believe that o-our Takezou is a dancer!" he continued laughing at me.

"Whats going on?" Kakashi and Asuma showed up looking vaguely interested in finding out what had Kiba in stitches, though the look both Sensei had was one of someone who had already been watching but decided not to say anything.

"Nothing! Absolutely none!" I said my face flushing red with embarrassment for the billionth time this mission. "Damn it! Alright who doesn't know at this point then?"

"The girls don't." Asuma said through blowing a breath of smoke out and stifling a laugh.

"The girls don't know what?" Sakura's voice said as she, Hinata and Michiru came into view looking somewhat confused.

"Nothing!" I responded instantly, cutting off Kakashi and Kiba's responses.

* * *

**AN: Takezou dancing around through his kata is more a representation of the similarities between Dancing and what sword combat can look like when its done by people of a very high ability.**


	27. Arc 5 - Pocket Full of Shells 3

**AN: So I've realized since I "Finished" AVID that I've kinda lost an interest in writing, which obviously sucks. Though when I say finished I mean that as it stands the story isn't finished and in fact there's heaps of room for it to continue, but I don't know how to continue forward with the area of the story that would take place in Shippuden yet.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Ume Would Be Proud**  
**Part 3**

* * *

"_You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain._ Huh, guess I'll have to find mine yet then won't I?" my words carried themselves quietly into the cool ocean air as the large ship traveled slowly across the slopes ever present in the waves.

"Talking to yourself again I see." Sensei's voice brought me from watching the endless horizon.

"It does seem to happen a lot doesn't it?" I said back turning to where he was standing, he was smoking like normal and his body language was relaxed.

"You'd probably know that better than I would Takezou, but it does seem to happen a lot yes." he gave a small smile.

"Sensei?" my voice came out oddly quiet, or more than I had intended anyway.

"Yeah what is it?" his eyebrows were raised as he awaited my question.

"... " I was lost for words, like someone had just whisked away my ability to think before suddenly finding it. "What's that Ku- Kurone? Lady like? Your girlfriend that is." I specified, I had forgotten her name among hundreds if not countless other things at this point.

"You mean Kurenai? She's alright I guess- why did you want to know?" his confusion was apparent.

"Asuma you forgot to deny that she's not your partner." I pointed out and he just shrugged.

"Why should I? It's not like it matters if you know, plus you guys are my team so it was going to happen eventually that you would have found out even if you didn't give me crap about it." Sensei shrugged again, he was right though.

"Fair, that's not actually what I wanted to talk about anyway." there was something else on my mind. "I'm not really sure how long it'll be until then, but I've been looking at going full time into teaching Kenjutsu and stopping my being a Shinobi."

"I know." Asuma said simply blowing smoke into the breeze.

"Wait what?" What did he mean?

"We already had this conversation don't you remember? You had me come over and meet Kazuko and you mentioned it." he paused for a moment, eyebrow raised again. "You didn't forget did you?"

"I might have." I answered truthfully. "I've been forgetting a lot recently, having trouble remembering much either- I'm hoping its just a phase of some kind."

"Oh… you might want to see a Yamanaka about that then."

"I thought about it." sighing to myself I stretched a little. "But I don't think that would help me all that much- anyway, would you be able to help me with the shadow clone?" I asked changing the subject away from my mental state or what have you.

"Sure we have a while before we need to be anywhere- so tell me where are you struggling?"

With that we began working on me performing a jutsu that no one was meant to know but everyone had and everyone knew.

In the end we couldn't quite find out what it was that was messing my using the jutsu up exactly, but I did manage to make one of the deformed dying ones like Naruto manage to do that one time I asked him to show me how he was doing for the academy three.

My meanderings on Sensei's help were cut short when the ship started rocking around and I was thrown into a wall in one of the corridors, Hinata would have done the same had I not caught her and set her right as we both looked at one another and rushed out onto the deck to help with what I assumed was the storm we heard about a few days ago.

There was heavy rain thrashing the ship and waves pounding at the hull as the dark sky blocked out by clouds loomed above us, the first thing I saw was a group of the circus people that Michiru had brought along with their animals trying to move said animals inside- Hikaru was being flung across the deck as waves crashed into the boat almost capsizing it.

Dashing forward I grabbed the kids hand and picked him up, as I did so I realised he was trying to help the tiger who was still stuck in its cage so I poured chakra through my body so it flash dried my clothing and made me a ever dry source of heat. Sliding across the wooden deck I grabbed onto the metal bar door and tore it off throwing it to the wind as the big cat ran towards shelter- Hinata was waiting there with Kakashi helping the animals and people inside. Following suit I rushed over to where they were and stepped into the ship as another enormous wave threatened to flip the ship as thunder sounded and the deafening tone of lightning shattered our ears- I was sure that in that moment I saw Kakashi catch so to say the lightning and redirect it.

Tumbling down into the ground with Hikaru still in my hands I let him go and let my back hit the wall of the hallway as the ship continued to rock around and shake.

Ugh I hated this sort of weather, the Ocean was as beautiful as it was horrifically dangerous so I probably should have expected it when I overheard that there was a storm at sea like that.

**[Stumbling Up The Mountain]**

The next day the weather calmed and the Ocean was back to its normal vaguely calm self as we traveled.

The island was pretty.

That wasn't really saying much considering all we could see was the beach and the dock at the port, there was an enormous forest that enclosed what looked like the gate that led into the city itself. Even from where we were as the ship closed in on the dock the city looked empty and like a void, Hinata used her Byakugan to get a better understanding of it and confirm for me before we went and told Asuma and Kakashi.

Asuma and Kakashi said that we should just go along with it all as normal until we got to the castle and see what happened.

I was starting to think that there had been a coup d'etat and the people were just hiding from whoever had taken over. Because of this though I asked Sensei if we'd be killing should we be attacked and he was pretty hesitant about it, but eventually he said that if it meant protecting Michiru and Hikaru then yes. I did hate that killing generally was the easiest way to deal with problems in our line of work.

Finally making it to the dock, people and cargo began being offloaded all the same, I was talking with Hinata about something when Sakura came over and got us to head through the town towards the lone building that stood on the hill behind the town. It was odd though, seeing paved roads, stone and brick buildings reminding me of a home or place long since lost to the annals of my mind that I could barely piece together. As the carriage of Michiru's slowly made its way through the streets even he commented on the fact that it was eerie how no one had come to greet them nor were there people just going about their day.

"Hey Kiba you smell anything off about this place?" I asked looking to him on the other side of the Princes cart, team seven was on its left and ten was on its right.

"Nah, nothing other than the people in their homes hiding but we already knew about that." his and my tones were hushed so that only us wearing these neat little com devices could hear.

We had been handed the com devices before we got off the ship so that if we got split we could just call in and check on one another, though I had a feeling it was also to make sure our Senseis could give orders and directions amongst fighting should anything start up.

The walk was just as quiet as you'd expect it to be as we slowly walked alongside Michiru's carriage and passed all the buildings, though I did notice a few shadows running around behind the buildings the closer to the back of the town we got. Obviously I wasn't the only one, its not like the two Jounin and a byakugan user were about to let something out of their view. In fact Hinata was the one to mention it to the rest of the group right after I noticed it the first time, though it only happened three times before we entered the woods and began heading along the beat path to the large mansion castle like thing at the top of the hill that was surrounded in high metal bar fences that had stone pillars at several intervals all designed with a grandiosity that screamed 'wealthy'. Nothing out of the ordinary for someone like Michiru's family basically, the castle- mansion thing was really weirdly designed though, it had a bunch of cylindrical building compartments that looked like someone hadn't thought about the practicality of it at all and maybe it was just that I was so used to seeing structures that made sense from all angles, but this one just confused me.

The large metal gateway sided with two stone columns that had these golden trimmings and long blue almost banner like bits engraved inside the gold trimming. The gates themselves opened like shutter doors by folding two pieces to one side each.

"Hinata keep your Byakugan going and give us details." Sensei said shortly as we passed the passage of the gates and headed along the path yet still to the large building of which was still a few minutes from us.

Over the course of the walk Hinata listed off numbers, positions and armaments. Michiru and Hikaru were none the wiser as Asuma and Kakashi formed a plan, they ended it with-

"_Don't shoot to kill unless they come with that intent._"

I probably looked the most casual next to our teachers as far as appearances went, though that was also because I had my hand casually resting on the hilt of the Chokuto the entire Journey so it wasn't like I looked any different. But Kiba and Akamaru seemed a little stiff and Sakura was acting like she just realized Shinobi killed people, Our Hime had her Byakugan on so it wasn't really like she could look very casual with the bulging veins on her head and eyes that packed a mean glare even if she more often than not looked like an adorable kitten.

Clearing my throat a little before we stopped in front of the big water fountain in the courtyard before the two large sets of stairs that led into the mansion before us, I noticed shadows in the windows of the highest point of the building presumably the shinobi Hinata pointed out earlier to us.

The doors that were up at the balcony of the stairs in front of us opened and a man who was rather rotund like our employer stepped forward with someone next to him, after a moment Michiru called out to the man-

"Ah! Shabadaba!" what a name, that mans parents must've hated him.

Before the man could respond to the prince I sneezed as loud as I possibly could in the process making both the prince and this Shabada doo guy nearly leap into the air, I pretended to wipe my nose on my shawl as I spoke.

"Sorry I've been holding that in-" I sniffled and I could hear Kiba stifling a laugh, the scooby-daba-who person looked annoyed and also super anxious as sweat beads rolled down his face. "Well don't let me keep you waiting, pardon my interruption and all that..." I made myself look like I was sorry for interrupting their reunion.

"R-right well Prince-" Scooby snacks got cut off as Sensei spoke.

"Er you don't mind if I smoke do you? It's been awhile since my last-" the Prince said it was fine and despite not understanding what we were doing assuming this was just natural had a bit of a smile on his face.

Sensei flicked a cigarette directly into his mouth from the carton and turned his thumb into a lighter with fire nature chakra, Hinata was in the midst of looking about as uncomfortable with the awkwardness of our plan as the Shada-daba person and his servant seemed to be. Slowly though as things settled again and Michiru looked to the man stood above us as if he thought he was above everyone present, the prince just seemed to become nervous or worried when he realized his father hadn't come out to greet him and right before he could mention as much.

"Cease them- and kill Michiru!" Shagabada-goo said furious with us, messing with his evil plan or whatever he had planned.

It was comical really, how Sensei and Kakashi were on top of the guy the moment he finished his sentence. They were clones of both our teachers I was sure seeing as both of them were still standing next to us, the problem came when three Ninja broke out from the highest window and came down upon us looking to kill the Jounin- an explosion happened near Shabadaba.

"EVERYONE THERE'S AIRBORNE POISON WATCH OUT!" Kiba howled at us all as the three Shinobi stopped their descent standing on parts of the mansion that jutted out from the main tower.

"_Good work Kiba, we could have gotten taken out here if you hadn't caught on"_ Kakashi's came on the coms in a hushed tone.

"_Actually it was Sakura, I just relayed for her_" said Pinkett was blushing slightly at the praise and attention for the smallest moment she could afford before jumping in to protect the Prince and his son.

"What?! They already figured us out!" one of the Ninja said sounded disappointed as she then jumped down to fight.

Closing my eyes and focusing I went into a familiar stance with the Chukuto at my hip and used a technique I had been taught but never actually used in combat, raising the blade so that it's hilt was near my face and the blade was pointed at the woman-

"_**Tsubame-Gaeshi**_" the words left my mouth in a guttural deep gravel tone that seemed to shake my opponent to their core, it was one of the three Ninja- this one had pink eyes and was a woman, really it was all I cared to remembered of her appearance before my blade found its purchase and sunk its teeth in as the gaping maw tore her apart despite the almost serene nature of the move.

The problem with the technique was that naturally it was made for something with the length of a Nodachi or preferably maybe even my Miaodao. Despite that though it still worked a charm on the woman as she was suddenly overcome with despair and terror- her face showing all the emotions in one instance before she was nothing but a bloody mess on the ground and it was left unrecognizable.

While I had taken to dealing with her the rest of our team had dispatched a good hundred of the guards that had appeared out of the woodwork to attack us and that I actually hadn't noticed because I was so focused at the time. Sensei had burned this big guy alive and knocked him out with a clone standing at the ready to attack while Kakashi with the help of Hinata and Kiba had disabled this guy who had a weird gauntlet that seemed to be the case of Hinata's worry when she had scouted the building earlier with her Byakugan. Sakura was running around checking everyone to make sure we weren't being done in by the poison, I was feeling a little slow, but I also hadn't ever used that move in combat like that so I wasn't sure if it was that or the poison. It seemed to be that our teacher's clones had gotten the short end of the stick as Asuma's ash clone? Dissipated and Kakashi's lightning clone having been half turned to stone somehow ended up shocking the guy who he had been standing over when the clones popped the Jounin both made what I guessed to be a shadow clone each standing them over the bad guys while the rest of us helped Michiru confront his usurper.

It was at that point though that a cart came thrashing in through the gates rolling to stop behind Michiru's cart, a man leapt out of it wielding a saber ready to fight and realized that everything was fine. He looked dejected that he didn't get a chance to fight but quickly made his way to the prince who was still a little shocked at the pace of how fast everything had been. I decided to go and stand next to Hinata while we all waited to hear our orders and see where this went.

* * *

**AN: I was glad that I finally got around to using one of Take's skills that I've been waiting to use for a while, this had seemed like a good time for it.**


	28. Arc 5 - Pocket Full of Shells 4

**AN: So this arc is mostly up to Takezou's interactions with Asuma and basically getting feedback on his poor state of mind that's so all over the place.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: ****Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.**  
**Part 4**

* * *

After the bodies were cleared and we began cleaning up, the large guy that Asuma had charred woke up for a short moment and tried to escape only to be knocked unconscious again when he tried to bite his own tongue off to kill himself. From what I was told after the fact the Shabada-doo confessed to killing to the prior king and his reasons boiled down to the King wanting to share his wealth with the people under his rule, but with the Prince away he decided to enact a plan to take power of the island and all its wealth.

The guard guy that showed up late to the party informed us that the King wasn't dead but he wasn't in a position to be moved so Sakura and Kakashi went with him to where he was currently stowed away, Michiru was rightfully having a hard time coming to terms with everything still.

Kiba was looking after Hikaru and Michiru by letting the boy play with Akamaru to calm him, preferably neither of them would have had to witness any of the killings that happened, but due to how it ended up they did.

I was still sitting around resting from over exertion with Hinata in a similar boat from having used a fair amount of chakra to say the least.

"T-Takezou?" her voice asked looking at me, we were both pretty haggard and I'm not even sure why, maybe it was that poison they mentioned.

"What is it Hime?" my amber eyes met her translucent white.

"What w-was that new move y-you used?" she asked back ignoring my use of Hime, her eyes cast themselves to the blade I had expected to lose, but ended up being fine.

"Its one of the many things I learned from my aunt, I just never saw a reason to use it beforehand." a heavy breath left me feeling tired. "I know a whole load of techniques like that." I repeated mostly for myself as a reminder that killing always seemed to be the easier option rather than keeping someone alive.

"Wh-" Hinata began to speak but I cut her off unintentionally.

"That was actually only one variant of that move; there're a few other ways to do it." realizing I cut her off I motioned for her to continue only for my dark blue tinted haired teammate to dismiss her thought by shaking her head and letting me continue.

"Ah right well, preferably I would have done the technique with a much longer sword because it's made for a blade a similar length to the larger swords I use." shrugging I lent back and realized there was nothing to lean against only to be caught by a hand before I fell backwards.

"Well it was one hell of a move, I couldn't even track it." Sensei said with a level of pride in his voice that made me glad to hear. "When you said that you had something for the shinobi earlier like that I was a little concerned it would be underwhelming, but you sure showed us- speaking of showing us, Hinata I'm proud of what you managed to do for us today so don't forget to take pride in your skills seeing as if we hadn't had that plan baked with your numbers and callouts then this might have ended much worse for us." he put his hands on either of our shoulders giving us a massive smile like a proud father.

"Does this mean we'll be going home after we help the Prince with the King then?" I asked and Asuma seemed to think about it.

"Depends reall-" he was cut off by the sounds of a circus rolling through the gates making their way to us.

**[Scene Dismissed]**

Eventually Sakura, Kakashi and the guard came back with the King of the island who had half of his body turned to stone. The red haired guy that Sensei was watching over after some coercing helpfully informed us that he did it and that it was reversible we just had to let him do it, Asuma had scoffed at that and voted to take Ishidate's glove that was the supposed source of the petrification. We also found out that Sakura could actually heal it as well so before sensei started trying to get the glove to work she worked her magic.

The Prince managed to have a brief conversation with his father about something I didn't stick around for because the man looked like he was dying and that it would be his farewell to his son, in the meantime we started helping Korega the guard captain that had stayed loyal even after the Coup. he wanted our help informing the residents of the island that the panic was over and that they could resume their normal routines, along with that we got told that we would be sticking around until Michiru was crowned King.

Which meant that yet again Kiba, Sakura, Kakashi and I would be at our second coronation for a ruler of a nation.

Why?

Until then though they interrogated Ishidate and Shabada both of whom were going to spend an eternity in prison, the big guy that was with Ishidate ended up killing himself in his cell a few days after being put there.

The petrification gauntlet got destroyed and tossed into the bottom of the ocean and much to the sadness of Ishidate he found out that his comrades had both died, one by my hand and the other by suicide. He asked to be killed as well once he found out, he expressed that they were the only thing keeping him going, so Kakashi did the job.

I ended up spending a good majority of our time on the island training on my own in the forest, most of it was spent trying to perfect more of the techniques Ume had taught me seeing as they seemed to work far better in combat than I had assumed. The obvious reason I had initially come to that conclusion was because they rarely worked outside of one on ones and seeing as I never did get a chance to do mine in the Chuunin Exam I didn't get a chance to try one of them that I was preparing for Kankuro.

Other than all that though nothing much happened for the rest of the time we were at the island, though at some point I think Michiru must've figured something out because he mentioned going and seeing about talking to his partner. So I hoped that went well for him when he did it, his son seemed rightfully ecstatic about his mother coming to the island to live with them again.

Though speaking about Hikaru he asked if I could show him more about archery and it wasn't like I was doing anything anyway, so I said I would. So I spent two days of my time showing the kid what he wanted to learn about and basically just flexed some more of my apparent teaching skill.

Teaching huh?

Maybe I should ask Sensei more about that.

And that's what led me to where I was now, I had found Sensei walking around near the main beach trying to keep a group of women away from him because they were fawning over him. He looked like he really just wanted to be left alone but really didn't want to say something to make them mad or whatever.

It was nearly our last day now anyway, we were leaving three days from now so getting some more time in with him and Hinata was on top of my priorities at the moment. Walking closer to the crowd that had formed around my teacher I started hearing some of what was being said and I suddenly felt like what I was doing was now a service rather than wanting to make things worse.

"Hey Asuma!" I called out getting his attention. "What would Kurenai say if she saw you now, with all these ladies? 'Cause I know I sure am appalled." The last bit came out more jovial than the rest and it seemed to do the trick as he was suddenly left alone except for me.

I was sure I heard a few of them say something to the effect of sleeping with him even if he already had a woman.

"You really are some kind of impossibility aren't you?" He joked putting his hand on my shoulder for a moment as we began walking along the shore.

"Something like that." Shrugging I dismissed the comment.

"Shouldn't you be with Hinata?" he asked, looking back in the direction of the city where said girl was hanging out with Sakura and one or two other people. I hadn't really taken much interest in what they were going to do.

"Are you implying that my time is better spent chasing after the tail of my teammate then coming to my teacher to ask for help with trying to get this jutsu down?" I joked yet still there was the slightest amount of truth in it after I said it and thought about what I had said.

"Well are you implying that learning a jutsu is more important than spending some well deserved down time on your friend while we're effectively on vacation?" we had stopped walking and he was looking directly at me with his 'I am your Sensei' face on.

"You're right once again Asuma."

"That's just because you knew that before coming to find me Takezou." there was a short pause. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked in a voice full of concern.

My mind was a wasteland of thoughts all disorientated and looking for a way out often leading to things that I might not intend for others to hear, so it was hard to converse with people some times. It's why I loved Kenjutsu and Kyudo so much, because your actions spoke volumes about your person without you having to utter a syllable.

"I'm still trying to figure out if I love her."

"You- what?!" Asuma's reaction was complete bafflement followed by the cigarette, I hadn't even realized that he had started smoking falling from his mouth to the ground.

"Well I asked myself about it back after I found out Sasuke left..." my voice trailed off before I explained myself more. "Or rather I re-evaluated all my relationships with everyone, from my parents and sister right down to someone like the Hokage or the store owners that I oftenly interact with."

"Right."

"So when I finally looked at our relationship it was more like you're my second dad if not my older brother of some kind and for Hinata she's always been my sister if anything." I had sat down on a log and was using it as a chair. "The more I thought about it though I wasn't really sure if I loved her or if I _loved_ her, maybe its just my head being all muddled about all this stuff happening to us."

"Shit, you freaked me out for a moment there." he sounded somewhat relieved about something. "You're just a confused kid going through puberty Takezou, don't think too hard about it all. Just go enjoy the vacation like you should be doing." Asuma patted my back pushing off in the direction of the town.

"I-" I was going to say something but Sensei cut me off.

"Don't look back now, that's a bad habit of yours where you always think about the past and let it choose who you are- you always spent time telling Sasuke about all that stuff, but every time I heard you say it- there was always an underlying hypocrisy to it all. So go now, hang out with Hinata and the others from team seven, stop thinking about all this stuff that's bogging down your mind."

There was a pause while I took in his words before he continued.

"Remember that you're allowed to be a kid, at least until you've got more responsibilities."

**[Don't Look Back In Anger]**

The day we finally arrived back in the village was nice and bright, though I had given up on wearing the shawl by that point and was just walking around shirtless because I was just headed straight home seeing as we had a bunch of crap to write out in our reports. Though the shawl thing I had given up on a few days before we hopped on the boat and headed back for the land of tea.

I did get a lot of looks from people as we passed them in the street and its not like I didn't know why, I mean I am of Lightning decent, I'm walking through the village dressed in white and black gear that was tailored for much hotter climates all the while having obvious tattoos as well as the sword on my right hip.

Surely I must be someone else then.

Around the time we were coming up on the Hokage Tower I dismissed myself from Sensei and Hinata, leaving to where I caught sight of my Dad walking back towards the direction of our house. Running up to him I found that he was walking with his younger brother, Toyohisa was dressed in his Konoha blues and so was dad.

My Uncle noticed me first. "Y'know those really pop when you aren't wearing a shirt, though I think if Kaede saw you she'd ask what happened to it." Toyo commented nodding in my direction so dad could see me. "Well that and the new look isn't half bad even if you look like you should be living in Wind."

"That's… an interesting new look Takezou, did you decide to move to the Land of the Moon while you were there?" Dad asked.

"No, but we did kill some guy that was trying to overthrow the King and Prince there- or well we didn't kill him he decided to off himself while in a cell." I started explaining what happened on my mission to them and both of them actually didn't know about the Kenjutsu technique I used which was odd seeing as their older sister was the one that taught me it, surely they would know she could do it right?

It was like that technique I used on my aunt that I disarmed her with despite the enormous gap between our power. To be fair to that move I made up though, I said to her at the time that it was useless outside of dueling scenarios and was inefficient against another Shinobi because they probably can at least throw a punch if I disarm them. That and there was a fairly big flaw in it that is pretty easy to see if you've seen the technique before.

Eventually we arrived home and Dad's brother left going in a different direction. I was assaulted by Kaede when I stepped in the door after dad and quickly found myself being berated for not wearing a shirt. So stumbling through the house I fell into my room only to find my sister playing with some kind of toy I didn't recognize, letting her do whatever it was she was doing I dropped all my equipment in the corner, put the sword in place she couldn't reach then grabbed some clothing out of my dresser and went to have a shower seeing as I hadn't had one in days since we came straight back to the village after landing in the port town we left in the Land of Tea.

* * *

**AN: Another short arc for one of the movies done, though like I mentioned up at the top this was mostly just for a bit of combat and also Take's talks with his teacher. something else I'll mention though is more a question to everyone, is he finally uncaring of killing/jaded? or is his mind just so far gone that he can't see it any longer?**


	29. Arc 5 - Pocket Full Of Shells part 5

**AN: This just a little breakup chapter between arcs because the next one has a large time skip in it to move the story along a bit. Also I've started rewriting the first few chapters so expect the first chapter of the story to have been overhauled by the time this chapter is up.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: "Good"**  
**Arc 5**

* * *

"Sasuke."

"What?"

"You're really hard to talk to, y'know that?" I said earning a trademark 'hn' from my teammate. "I have a hard time trying to do anything social with you when you won't even open up with us all that much."

"What do you want to know then?" he turned to me the normal passively annoyed look gone and a somewhat more open expression where he had a raised eyebrow that basically asked me to shoot back with something.

"Alright well I wasn't expecting that… uh give me a moment..." damn, I actually hadn't expected this. "So… what's it like being a part of a clan? I know that's a loaded question that has a lot of connotations and all, but like, I've never experienced anything like that- Hinata is our closest example but her dad is stuck up and every time I see him and Neji I want to break their faces, so I don't get very far in the place."

There was a long pause as he seemed to think about it, something about the way he closed his eyes and took a long deep breath and stretched a little was… well he looked relaxed for once. I was happy knowing that even with a possibly strenuous question he was over all relaxed while hanging out with me in the yard, Mum was inside with my sister and dad was working.

"Well, think of it like having your entire family, from parents to thrice over distant cousins, aunts and uncles all around you living within the same neighborhood so you see them all everyday."

"Right I think I get it." I replied thinking about what he said as I looked down at my scared hands and forearms.

"Anything else? I'll let you off with one more question." Sasuke's voice came out fairly casual for him at least.

"One more huh? Sounds like a decent deal before we have to get back to training.'' We had taken a break from Sensei's chakra nature training that we had a month left of before the Chuunin Exam. "would you let me get away with asking my final question later? Or is it a now thing?" I asked in case I came up with something in a few days that I wanted answered.

"No." his answer was firm and immediate. "You asked me to open up now, so I'll answer now unless you can beat me in our next spar." he said smugly adding on to it.

"Right… you're on." I thought about it for a few more minutes but was interrupted when Mum came out into the yard where we were sitting on the veranda.

"Oh? Don't stop on my account you two." she said sitting on the leather couch behind us with a cup of coffee and a book.

"Uh… what were we talking about again?" I looked at my teammate with my brow raised and he just gave me a look that radiated 'are you serious right now' and I was in fact serious, I forgot what we were talking about. Seeing mum threw me off some, for whatever reason.

Rolling his eyes he ignored my question and laid back casting his gaze to the sky and I heard mum stifle a small laugh presumably at my expense.

Time passed and we just sat quietly enjoying the time off, I had suggested it to him while Sensei took up focusing on Hinata's training letting us do our own thing. So much of our time was spent just going all out on one another in spars or all gas no brakes on our chakra nature training, again this was our down time or whatever so it was nice to actually take a break even if Sasuke had been against it at first. As per usual he had wanted to run himself into the ground like he had at the beginning of our training where he kept being sent to the hospital for it all, though I suppose I wasn't any better a lot of the time seeing as I do the same with my aunts training.

Eventually I figured out what we had been talking about and started thinking about my final question for my teammate, there was something that I was curious about.

"Sasuke."

"What?"

"How do you keep motivating yourself for what you're aiming for? Like do you ever sit there and think 'why the fuck am I really doing this?' or do you ever wake up and sit there for an extra half hour asking yourself how far you have left to go?" I've had some trouble motivating myself on a normal day, so I was curious as to how he dealt with that sort of thing. I know I;m probably more throttled by these sorts of thoughts- but I wanted to hear about what it's like for him.

Mum seemed to put her book down for a moment to listen in on what her boys had to say, she always said that she loved Sasuke as her second son and enjoyed treating just like she does me and 'Tsuki.

"That's..."

"Hard to answer? Or did you think I'd ask about something else?" I asked as his voice trailed off and he seemed to think about it.

"Yeah, I have those days." he basically whispered, clearing his throat he looked to the clouds in the sky. "If I'm honest, I measure myself against you and Sensei." Sasuke paused for a second collecting his thoughts. "Sometimes I feel like even Hinata has had more growth than me, not to make her out to be weak, but because her style doesn't really let up for much improvement from just learning it and mastering it."

"I-" Sasuke was cut off by Mum speaking.

"You boys are always so caught up in getting stronger that you don't see how strong you already are." Her words sounded somber. "You're far too caught up in what's going on years from now instead of what's happening now."

"..." Our resident Uchiha was quiet as he thought about what Mum said.

She stepped down to where we were and picked us both up into her arms and she hugged us."Just take some time off for a bit and watch the world go by a bit every now and again, alright?" both of us agreed to what she said.

"Thats what the flowers are for after all, so go and get Hinata and take some time off to get rid of all this tension in your bodies." Kaede stated after letting us go and being very clear that time off was now mandatory.

**[Mandatory relaxation]**

We were now a few hours down the line, we had arrived at the training ground maybe twenty minutes after Kaede seeing to our conversation about motivation, but the problem came from the fact that Sensei and Hinata were sparring at a speed that made the mock spars we did normally look tame by comparison. Though it reminded me of the time I watched Uncle Toyohisa spar with Ume and they- well they were forced to stop because if it had continued they would have blown up the neighbourhood.

Back to why our teacher and dear princess had taken so long, the answer is actually kind of boring. I said something when we entered the clearing and Sensei took his attention off of her ending with her knocking him out with the thirty-two palms when she hit his chakra points. So then Hinata freaked out about it as she realized we had shown up as well, we dragged Asuma off to the hospital and I dumped him at the front desk and just said that there was a training accident before walking off to do this team bonding mandatory fun Mum wanted us to do.


	30. Arc 6 - No Longer Armed

**AN: The story isn't too far off the final chapter now, only seven more to go and then it's at the end of where I can write to for the time being.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Still growing  
****Arc 6: No longer Armed**

* * *

It was officially done.

I had just finalized my resignation from being a Shinobi in a meeting with the Hokage, Asuma-Sensei and Hinata was present as well seeing as she was a part of Team 10 and all. I had told them that I was done about a month ago and that I would be stopping, obviously Sensei and Hinata were both understanding and disheartened about it seeing as Sasuke had run off and now I was leaving the team. I didn't tell anyone other than them and my team either which was what made seeing Kiba, Team 8 and Hinata waiting for me outside the tower- it made sense I guess, Shikamaru and Chouji were like vaguely my friends in the academy even if I didn't talk to them anymore, Kiba… well I talked to him and the last time I actually hung out with him was in the land of snow I realized. Ino though, I knew for certain that she was only there because Shikamaru probably said for her to be, or something like that.

If I had to say though it's been about a year since I started training to become an instructor, just like the first day I was still in love with it, teaching was cool too, I got to start teaching a class of my own at the 'Black Steel Kazuko' dojo, the kids I taught were only ages five to seven at the moment- there were about nine kids.

My class aside though, being fifteen? again was something else- I had grown pretty significantly, now I was around or just under six feet tall, my shoulders were getting much broader, my body itself was filling out and most annoyingly hormones were back again. And fuck me I hated this. Imagine going to talk to your teammate who was effectively your sister and starting to notice her curves forming- it was awful and I've had to straight up leave training over the months when it became too much and I would go and throw myself into things like Kyudo to keep me focused. That was on the backburner for now though, being this tall was weird now… I've always been tall be it here or what was left of another life time, but when I went from being a head or so above most of our class to almost as tall as Dad and Asuma Sensei who were both like three or four inches taller than I was now. I was taller than Kakashi which was funny to point out whenever I saw the man, I didn't see him often as you might expect seeing as I wasn't on his team but Hinata and I did get assigned to help Kiba a few times as well as Asuma.

It was nice to not have to get all my armour and whatnot on when I didn't have to, now I just wore Kimonos and Yukata's when the occasion called for it, because of this though I had like ten different ones while beforehand I had like four. I wore a lot of black, grey or darker blue coloured Kimono's, I had a few red ones but mostly, like I said stuck to the simple colours like black and grey. For instance right now I was wearing a black Kimono with a white singlet, wifebeater, undershirt or whatever you'd want to call it under it, it had a small crimson obi and other than that I was wearing straw sandals- why? Well because it was simple and easy to get into in the mornings as well as take off.

Going back to the question I placed about my age though, Mother finally told me on my last birthday that she and Dad didn't actually know how old I was because Mum had lost- yes I just said _lost _my birth certificate. So my parents had just been guessing how old I was, so for all I know I could be a year or two older than I think, or even a year younger. I didn't really have a response to finding out my own parents weren't aware of how old I was… this probably explains my growth though right? Aside from my heritage- Mum said that her Father was even taller than Dad and he was already super tall.

Back to the now though.

I was sitting next to Hinata in a booth at a restaurant that they'd all booked for a send off so to say, with her to my left, Kiba and Akamaru to my right with the rest of the spots being filled out by team 8 while we all ordered food. Despite how it was pretty bittersweet I was happy, joyful even, a smile danced across my face while I listened to Shikamaru and Chouji retell some of their teams more insane or absolutely nutty missions and just generally catching up with everyone at the table- Kiba was arguing that we'd had the craziest missions so far with things like the Wave fight, Land of Snow, helping a bounty hunter in the land of stone- where Shikamaru countered with helping stop a war and saving the land of Wind and the rest of the elemental nations from being raided… Kiba called bullshit and his mood only got worse when team 8 all swore to it being an S-rank mission on a need to know basis.

"So Sakura is a nurse at the Hospital then?" I asked Kiba and kind of Ino depending on if she decided to answer.

"Well from what she's said she tried to do just that but Lady Tsunade picked her up nearly instantly and now she can cut you open to restart your heart and punch people through buildings- that being if she doesn't use them as weapons… kinda why she isn't here today- she had some tests or something going on." He informed everyone as there was a visible shudder across the booth as we all unanimously weren't comfortable with that thought.

For a moment I noticed a certain amount of glee in Ino's eyes as they lit up in anticipation of what she was about to mention.

Clearing her throat she got everyone's attention.

I was already terrified of what was about to happen.

Women that could punch you through a building were scary and women like Ino who could make you shit bricks just by giving you a look before she mentioned something that you'd really rather not have them know about.

"Takezou..." she licked her lips savouring every second of my misery. "I went to see a movie recently."

I felt my soul leave my body- I could see Kiba's eyes go a little wide, he knew how much I hated that part of our mission, after all he spent half a year teasing me over it until it came out and he was now of a similar vote to me.

"It was the final movie in the Princess Gale series, and well… how do I put this..." She paused for a moment, a grin rising. "I hadn't even known they were making the fourth movie- low and behold though, while I was at the theatre I saw a poster for it- you wouldn't believe who was on one of the posters for it!"

"Seeing as those two have gone pale I'll take a guess and say they were a part of it." Shikamaru cut in blandly with a vague smirk as Ino got annoyed at him for it.

"Yeah I suppose we were." I confirmed, I don't think I ever actually told Hinata and Sensei about what exactly happened on that mission. I say that because Hinata seemed interested.

"So were you like extras or something?" Chouji asked, bringing my attention to him as he spoke between bites of food.

"Something like that." was my simple answer, after all I'd rather not relive it all if I didn't have to.

"Y-you didn't say much a-about it when you g-got back..." the translucent eyed girl said from my left having found it in herself to speak up. Up until this point she's been pretty quiet, and to be fair her team is falling apart around her and then we've gotten together with people we're loosely friends with to send me off.

Thinking about it though… I tossed all those books into the fire didn't I? The ones I had shown to Sasuke and Hinata, I wasn't sure if the contents of them made much of a difference, Sasuke had called me out on them when he read through it in the forest. He was right that I had tailored them for a specific purpose, the thing was that I had written these short stories that were effectively the best way I found that I could express what I wanted to get across, they weren't terribly subtle but at the same time…

I was drawn from my thoughts when I heard my name being mentioned again, for a while the colourless nature of what my left eye saw was void, but now I noticed it again and it was getting on my nerves along with Ino.

"And then while he was holding her bridal style watching the destruction he said '_To live and die by the sword, for your lord and no other. That is the way of the samurai._' it was almost too cool to be true." she laughed like a kid. "Takezou if I had known you were such a good actor then I might've liked you more!" Ino said loudly not letting me live that week down.

While it was nice to know we might be able to repair our relationship to not be antagonistic, I didn't like that line being seen as acting though… After all, nothing I did was.

"It wasn't." I stated flatly cutting the overly fashionable girl off.

"What?"

"I wasn't acting, I really did say that, those men really did die." I was being pretty cold, but it's how I felt. "I may not have known any of them, but I've still spent years training like one, so I felt angry at Naruto when he was going off about it while it happened."

Kiba cleared his throat "That end of the movie was pretty great though right? The way the land of snow got turned to the land of spring was insane! I still can't believe it!"

The conversation turned away and I went back to eating.

I may have thought it stupid, but at the same time every now and then I looked back on it and even now I could see it. The director was right, I'm okay with all the scenes I was in by proxy. If someone learned something from what I had said while they were recording then I'm glad I was of some assistance to those who went to see the movie. I still hadn't seen it, but I do think my character was credited to as 'Yasuke the black Samurai' which was a joke I had made after the fact where I was talking to someone- I don't remember who and I had said that it was meant to be a joke seeing as Yasuke was a famous black Samurai that served under Oda Nobunaga. Hence why I had called myself it when she called me a Samurai- which all things considered I was basically one, I only use Ninjutsu where I have to after all, otherwise it's mostly Kenjutsu.

When everything started dying down later on and everyone was finished eating.

After that though Hinata ended up having to leave because she had some family business on, Kiba had something similar, Chouji left because we had stopped paying for the food and no one really wanted to support being eaten out of pocket.

It was just Ino, Shikamaru and me, the Nara was fading in and out, I suspected that Ino was making sure he didn't fall asleep in the booth and get forgotten.

"I had thought it was just make up by the way." my attention was drawn to the blonde.

"Which one?"

"Which one?' he asks." Ino laughed hollowly. "Guess that answers that then, you already knew about my question before I asked."

"You were looking at them when you caught sight of my face after I stepped out of the tower." I paused watching her nod. "It wasn't too difficult to guess, plus there aren't too many things about me that could be seen as fake aside from my hair- I had some lady ask where I got such good hair dye from once..." I let out a short laugh remembering it.

Laughing some on her own, Ino asked another question. "But seriously- where do you get such good hair dye?" giggling to herself the air around us lightened significantly.

"Making any sense why I decided to stop then?" I asked back solemnly, I may have once found her annoying and possibly even hated her, but right now we were two people laughing about something silly.

"It does, I wasn't quite sure why back when Shikamaru told me about it- in fact I was originally going to only come so that I could get back at you" She paused with a sigh. "But then we got to the tower and when you stepped out I realised something I might not have otherwise… and that was that this job line really does take a toll on people."

"It does. that's for sure… but the only real damage I have from being a ninja are the scars up my hands and forearms ." I gestured to the rest of myself, my Kimono top opening slight when I did so. "The rest of this is from other things, not to mention I don't even know why my hair is greying or silver."

"Oh… thats probably something you ought to look into, unless you want to look like some selfless hero character in a movie that has a tragic backstory." She joked "That scar over your face is pretty awful though." with that Ino stood up and started waking her teammate.

"Oddly specific, but I'll take it to heart just continue to be a teacher and instructor then." following suit I got up. "Guess I'll see you around then."

With that I walked away leaving her to get Shikamaru out and home.

**[Dealt A Crap Hand]**

_My breathing hitched as I caught sight of something that was not meant to be there._

_For a moment I thought I'd seen that girl from the prelims of the Chuunin Exam._

_Kin- something or other._

_My arrow had punctured through her skull knocking it back with a sickening _

**crack**_ and _**squelch**_ as the blood sprayed from it, and the body fell forward crumbling as it split in two where my blade had bisected her._

_I nearly threw up falling to my knees._

_My eyes closed a ragged breath releasing itself as I tried to push down the feeling of dread and gut wrenching horror as I felt one step closer to emptying my stomach's contents._

Finally when I opened my eyes I felt a weight lift from me.

I looked around and I was still kneeling on the floor of the dojo bow and arrows ready to start a sync point for the exercise, taking a moment to catch myself and breathe properly. With said breath I stood following the practiced movements I'd become accustomed to doing over the years, reaching the climax of my stance. I sucked in a calming breath to focus my line.

"_Calamity untold, unbound by weight. So fly straight._" I spoke softly in the breath I released along with the arrow, the barely audible _thwip _as it struck the dead center of the target.

"You alright there?" the older girl said from my left. "I mean your chants always sound fucked up, but this time your eyes were a whole lot more frightened or something like that..." Her voice trailed off.

The purple haired woman's hand landed on my shoulder "It's… just a leftover problem from being a Shinobi is all."

"I can't imagine something that's making you physically tremble after the fact to be 'a left over problem' seeing you react like this and all." Yumi said, turning me around to look at her worried face, and I understood it. I've been going here for two years now, not to mention at the current time we were the only ones in, I had come straight here after the restaurant with everyone else.

"You're right."

"I am!" she said proudly while her eyes crinkled into a smile. "And as your surrogate caregiver while you attend training I say you go home and let me come because I want to see your adorable sister again."

"Yes ma'am." I chuckled at what she said and we both got to cleaning up so that I could be dropped off at home by my teacher.

It took us just under an hour to clean up everything and put all the targets away, arrows, bows and the extra equipment. Most of the remainder was spent washing the floors and similar boring stuff.

Finally though when we were out of our gear and walking along the road toward my house the sun was setting, the sky was orangish pink, there weren't too many clouds above us though. Now that I got to thinking about it I wasn't really sure why Yumi had been at the Dojo alone though, we didn't have training on today and no one had mentioned coming in, maybe she did this all the time? I didn't ask though it wasn't really my place to pry into her personal life, she's a great friend though, I don't think I could ever understate how much I enjoy hanging out with her and doing Kyudo when I'm not teaching, learning about teaching and realizing how much money I actually had left over from being a Shinobi, like I could buy my own house if I wanted to and fill it with furniture. It was still insane how much we earned from all that over the years, it never really seemed like that much when I had to buy stuff for work.

We slowly began to approach the house around thirty or so minutes after leaving, there hadn't been much foot traffic either, probably because a festival was coming up and people were preparing. I think it was a Cherry Blossom festival if I had to guess based on the time of year, spring was soon.

Well that and we had a large Sakura tree outside the front of our house that provided shade to the front lawn, stepping past the old tree though I went to the door and opened it calling out that I was back, same as Yumi. standing in the genkan taking off our sandals took the lead into the house walking down a short hall into the living room where Mum was talking with a friend of hers.

* * *

**AN: See you next week, and if you have any questions just pm me or review**


	31. Arc 6 - No Longer Armed 2

**AN: So the start of this chapter I like a fair amount, but like the latter half is pretty not great and honestly its pretty bad.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Back to school**  
**Arc 6**

* * *

"Good morning Sensei!" a chorus of voices called as I came to a stop in front of them, we were inside the main dojo building because it would make pulling things out easier to put them away when the little gremlins left.

I was still not used to being called Sensei though, they were all a decade younger than me, but still it was weird. Probably felt the same for Asuma now that I think of it seeing as it was a similar age gap.

"Alright, Kudō get us kicked off." I asked the young girl with black and purple tinted hair tied up in a ponytail who had been a rising star so to say, she was really smart and had a good grasp on the concepts I was introducing to all my goblins.

Only problem was that Kudō had a lot of anxiety so I was really just trying to get her used to being in this sort of position, I got a different kid up each time we had lessons so it was being rotated. They were only kids after all though so I was pretty lenient about things within reason and gave them all a fun time and a reason to keep coming back to learn.

After our dear Shinoa Kudō finished getting everyone ready with Bokkens and making sure everyone was accounted for I started running them all through the kata, they were pretty simple to learn and easy for kids their age to ease into before learning the more intense parts of the later training when they were older. I probably would teach it until they were around ten or so just because of how it was, well that and I wasn't going to teach them how Ume taught me.

I pulled out the clipboard that had a piece of paper with all their names on it, and I began going down it to make sure Kudō didn't forget anyone.

First was "Shuichi Katou", a dark haired boy that always has a smile.

Second was "Shinoa Kudō", who aside from her interesting hair colour had actually joined the Dojo initially because she had been with her mother and seen Ume and I walking around one time in our gear with the swords and wanted to be as strong as Ume looked at the time. - she's now come to vaguely fear my Aunt, rightly so if I might add.

Third was "Chikara Oishii" a red headed, blue eyed girl who oddly enough didn't like spiders and frogs, though she was also a bit of a tomboy.

Fourth is "Shizuko Shimizu" this platinum like blonde haired and green eyed girl was quite an odd one when she practiced because I wasn't sure if she was Ninja trained but could turn herself into water and often 'cheated' so to say in her duels. - I hadn't looked into her family for it, but other than that it was just funny to watch her fight people and do it.

Fifth was "Itsuki Fuun" a brown haired boy who had a strong wing- he's bruised me a few times.

Sixth was "Hiroto Mutou" , another bright faced boy with blonde hair and ambitions of being a great swordsman strong enough to take on Ninja.

Last but not the least , Seventh is "Saburou Takeda" he told me his family used to be Samurai in the Sengoku Jidai and or Warring States Era if you were boring. The kid had matted black hair and a rather strong thousand yard stare, from what his mother had told me when I got a chance to talk to her she said Saburou wanted to get strong enough to protect his family after something happened when they had left their original home in the Land of Iron.

My kids aside, they were all here today.

"Fuun- lighten up on your swings, you might have the strength to break another kid in half but you'll fall over tired before then if you can control it and slow down some, try to stop short of your belly button." As I advised him I saw a glint in his eyes spark before he nodded to himself and began trying to employ what I said.

"Sensei!" a loud voice basically yelled at me as I was putting the clipboard down to attach more paper to it.

"Yes Oishii?" I turned to where she was only to see her wooden blade was through the center of Shimizu's chest which was currently water, I rolled my eyes at the sight. "Oh my it seems I'll need to stop early because one of my dear students has killed another." I said loud enough for all of them to hear, a few annoyed sounding voices came back in response.

"No! We only just started!"

"Alright well then Little Miss Shimizu would you mind moving so that the sword isn't through your chest and becoming fleshy again?" the two prankster gremlins relented and got back to working.

The rest of my morning was spent watching and guiding the kids through, making sure everyone was having fun and not completely bored out of their minds doing what we're doing, around midmorning to midday I took them out for a run until they collapsed and a few ended up falling asleep from how exhausted they were so I called it for the day and went round dropping the kids off at their homes and making small conversation with the parents that cared to.

When I was finished dropping them off I made my way back to the Dojo and cleaned up properly so that Ume didn't force me to clean it and her entire property up as punishment, she wasn't beyond making extra mess on the days I did so. It was probably nearing afternoon when I was done and ready to go home, the walk home was uneventful as per usual and I got to cook something up for myself when I was back, I hadn't done too much cooking recently so that was a good change of pace for me.

**[Passing On Thoughts]**

_"Get out there!" a gravelly voice shouted at me as a red and black hilted Katana was thrust into my hands and I was thrown out._

_Stumbling forward and tripping into the muddy wet ground briefly stunning me as the horrific screams of people, sitting up I wiped mud from my eyes and stared around trying to catch my bearings as an arrow slammed down into the ground next to me cutting my cheek in the process._

_I rolled to the right as I stumbled to my feet again and began walking towards the nearest person I could find who was a man dressed in blue Samurai gear, he turned to me and snarled the eyes of a beast who'd found its prey began to close the distance.__"_

_**AAARGGH!**__" The guttural roar of the man threw me off as he approached following as I fell onto my back and his blade came down with a hellish fury, with what little sense of self preservation I could muster I thrust the blade out through the man's chest as his missed and the armour cracked and he fell onto me._

_Pushing the corpse off me I stood and realized I was starting to feel exhausted, I dodged back again when a sudden spearhead rushed by me avoiding going through my head._

_I brought down the blood and muck covered blade on the spearman's head as he tripped forward from the thrust, killing him near instantly I pushed forward into the hell before me. A battlefield littered with bodies fighting and on the ground, rain beat down on all as the night sky was softly illuminated by the Moon as it hung above all in full like we were giving the celestial body a show._

_Wiping my face I realized I was bleeding from the forehead and that it was getting in my eyes, slicking my hair back with the mudied blood from my wound. I pushed forward a Horse charging me, galloping full speed as it passed by and an old flintlock rifle was pointed at me. There was a shattering _

_**BANG!**__ And I felt something shuttle pain through my nerves, they were on fire and it wouldn't go out no matter how much water covered me._

_The hellscape didn't vanish when I opened and closed my eyes forcing me to stare into the night sky, coughing up blood and trying to grad at the armour I seemed to be wearing…_

_I had no idea what time was…_

_How long was I down?_

_Who knew?_

_I started to crawl along the mud occasionally feeling a fleshy consistency to the ground I went over along with moans and groans of people waiting for it all to end already._

**Hell** _this was _**Hell** _wasn't it?!_

_"W-" I tried to scream into the either but nothing came out, not a sound outside of-_

_Clashing steel_

_The thunderous rain beating down._

_The Clashing steel_

_The rain_

_The CLASHING STEEL_

_THE BEAT OF RAIN_

_**THE BLOOD**_

_**THE VIOLENCE**_

_**Death!**_

_**MORE!**_

_**The Clash of steel!**_

_**The Beat of Rain!**_

_"More..."_

_The were the only words I got out before I felt what I had felt all those years ago when I used Chakra for the first time and I threw myself into the standing bodies of people swinging like a mad beast unleashed from its cage-_

_"Aha..."_

_"Aha- HAHAHAAHA!" My laugh echoed in my ears with the screams and yelling._

A swing of the sword

A Slash

A thrust!

Death

Death!

Fire!

"_**AAARRRRGGGHHH!**_" _Like a beast_

_Like a Beast_

_Like the Beast_

The only thing they will fear is you

_A beast_

_A monster_

_Corpse!_

_Swing!_

_Corpse!_

_Killing, death, mud, blood- horror!_

_Nothing could stop me!_

An Impact

Rough

Heavy

Everything fade to black-

**[Muddied Mind Of Chakra]**

The first thing I noticed was the smell of sweat, then it was the heavy feeling of metal and the uncomfortable nature of bindings strapped to my arms and legs, I couldn't move. My skull felt like someone had smashed a sledge hammer into the back of it or like a cinder block…

It took a while before I could lift my eyelids, they were so heavy and I felt sluggish, like trekking through the sludge of a swamp with a broken body.

Everything felt like crap.

My tongue had the lingering taste of iron.

I found a white ceiling was the first thing I laid my eyes upon, antiseptic caught my nostrils making it wrinkle in distaste automatically, flowers… it smelt of pollen. My half lidded eyes were having trouble keeping open, the sound of a heart rate monitor and a clock ticking filled my ears like a banshee's siren, I ground my teeth together at the continuous mind numbing clatter.

"Ugh..." I let out a soft groan, it all hurt.

My throbbing skull was keeping me from thinking straight.

The left side of my body felt off, the weight of whatever was holding me was clamped around the area just under my armpit. It was odd considering how the ones on my right side were around that wrist.

If I had to guess I was in the hospital again, I couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

They closed- my eyes that is. I began to drift off, falling asleep.

**[Familiar Ceiling]**

There was a presence in the room when I woke again.

I couldn't tell whose it was.

A doctor maybe?

A Nurse?

"Who?" I asked, my voice sounding hoarse and rough, my eyes were still feeling heavy too so I hadn't opened them yet.

There wasn't a response, but I did soon after getting the feeling that what I presumed was a glass touching my dry lips, drinking the water from it I cleared my throat the best I could.

"You haven't been using chakra?" a voice said, catching me off guard and causing me to nearly jump, but I was stopped by the restraints on me. I couldn't tell who it was.

"Not sure." was all I managed to get out.

"Your mother tells me that it's a Kekkei Genkai… a particularly brutal and unfair one I might add- more a curse really." it sounded feminine.

There was a warm and comforting feeling that I could only describe as good. It was medical chakra entering my wounds wasn't it?

"Warm." I commented aloud unconsciously.

"It's good to see your senses aren't destroyed then." there was the sound of footsteps as the woman moved around the bed to what sounded like my left and I felt the warm feeling resume on my eyes.

"Though, your eye still seems to be an issue" she continued to herself, ignoring me. "Tch.. it's only gotten worse..."

When her hands moved away I opened my eyes, I was met with blonde hair, light brown eyes that held a sadness to them. Though that wasn't saying much seeing as her expression was more that of a concerned mother than I would have expected to ever see on this woman.

"Lady Tsunade…?" the words fell out of my mouth, it sounded odd.

"I would correct you, but you look like if I raised my voice then you'd go back into a coma." She replied disgruntled about it almost.

"I- I can't see?!" I let out a terrified noise as I realized I couldn't see anything on my left side.

* * *

**AN: I had been planning this chapter since like a few chapters into the story but it came out pretty crappie, other than that I wrote this around the time that the game rips for the DOOM Eternal soundtrack were appearing on Youtube so that probably didn't help the autisticness of the mid section of this chapter.**


	32. Arc 6 - No Longer Armed 3

**AN: So this is a double post because that last chapter is genuinely bad and I really don't like how it turned out so I'm chosing to make up for that by giving you this.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Walking in a Straight line**  
**Arc 6**

* * *

"Why is that what you focused on when your arm is missing?" Tsunade said looking at me confused about my freak out.

"W-what?!" my arm was gone?!

"Right you can't see that can you..." She sounded almost like she wished she hadn't said anything. "Yes though your left eye is- I don't really know how to explain it other than busted, your left arm is completely gone as well though."

I was silent.

After all, what else could I say? Apparently my arm was gone and I couldn't see out of my left eye…

"Chains?" I asked after a long pause before lifting up my right arm and saw the shackles clamped around my wrist and ankles.

"Part of what led you to losing your left side."

"It's not like I'll get very far with no depth perception so can they come off?" I looked at the leather straps, I had said chains, but they weren't metal.

"Just precaution to keep you from hurting yourself or others." the Hokage took all of them off and dumped them on a free seat and brought out a clipboard.

"Seeing as you're awake enough for this then I suppose I'll send in your real doctor and send a message for your family." With that my third interaction with our new esteemed leader left the room.

I managed to find the adjuster on the hospital bed and moved it so that I was sitting up, now that I was able to look at myself properly I looked at the stump where my left arm used to be. It was cut off just above where my elbow had been prior, sighing I touched the spot, running my index finger over it and noticing how much it felt like it had been cauterised after being torn off or something similar… at the least it was oddly flat and straight across rather than rugged.

Guess Dad and I were starting to look more alike- I just needed a more scarred face, though losing an eye probably makes me win that competition.

My reaction probably should have been more extreme at this point, but how was I supposed to react anymore? It was subdued because I just didn't have the energy to expend on caring anymore…

She mentioned my Kekkei Genkai didn't she?

I had forgotten about it…

I had forgotten…

Fuck-

My thoughts were cut off when there was a knock on the door and it was followed by an unfamiliar doctor who seemed more than a little surprised that I was sitting up, though he looked like after a moment that he attested it to the Hokage doing it for me, which was kind of annoying that this guy just assumed I wasn't strong willed enough to do something simple- I mean sure I nearly fell right out of my bed immediately and was only stopped by the chair on the side I nearly went over on.

**[H**_**armless**_** Nature]**

"_Shit_" I cursed watching the plastic cup of water spill on the table that was set up for me, I had knocked it over while going to pick it up, my throat was beyond a little parched.

I sighed leaning back and looking at the ceiling resigning myself to sitting here bored out of my mind and unable to do what I wanted. I wanted to get back to my classes, I wanted to do Kyudo, I wanted to walk around the village. _I wanted a lot of things_, but they just weren't going to be something I could do for a long time yet.

This was boring, and I wasn't even close enough to the window to see my reflection, so I had no clue what I looked like at the moment. I couldn't even check if my theory was correct…

It had been about two hours since my Doctor left with a Nurse, they'd gone off to- well doing something I actually wasn't really sure what they were doing. They had given me an orbital exam and said they'll be back for a physical so I had that to look forward to, I wasn't too bothered about doing tests at the least they'd give me something to do while I was in this state. It was hard to explain how I felt too, I just kept looking at my hand- opening and closing it, moving it around and just trying to well… get a feel for it again.

A sigh escaped me as I looked back at the cup I had spilt ten odd minutes ago going off what the clock in the room said.

"Ugh! Would someone just show up already!" I raised my voice, it was still coming out rough and hoarse.

It was at that moment that the door flung open so suddenly that it frightened me, after all it was on my left- so I guess you could say it _blind sided_ me

"Ah!" I yelped out as my eye focused on who was standing in the doorway.

Her hair was a bloody like crimson streaked with highlights of unnatural silvery grey, her eyes of ocean blue and skin dark like the earth. An oddly familiar dark blue Kimono with Ivory white doves embroidered onto it embraced her form, a similarly ivory coloured Obi finishing the outfit off. Though I had missed this detail initially as she closed the distance and her arms wrapped around me tightly- her face had a light scar running up her right cheek which had been emphasised by all the tears running down them.

I would have said 'You're late' but I didn't want to make her break anymore.

"'Ake-o" through her sobs I managed to make out what sounded like my name.

It stung.

My heart felt heavy.

"I love you too." her embrace somehow managed to get tighter.

Kaede didn't let go, she held me like she was scared I'd disappear if she let go, I tried my best to reciprocate it with my stump and right arm. Though she was probably used to these sorts of hugs with Dad now that I think about it.

I wonder what my team- right… I wonder what Hinata and Sasuke will think the next time I see them, will he berate me in a show of that affection he showed whenever we got hurt? Or would she worry about how I got to this point.

"I thought I'd lost another one of my babies..." Mum's voice stopped all other thoughts in my mind yet again.

She nearly lost her second child… she nearly lost another child…

"I'm Sorry-" I let out again before I was pulled even tighter again- it was getting hard to breathe as it went on, I was crying now too, how could I not? I caused her so much pain and I wanted nothing more than to stop it.

I was always against regretting things and I wasn't entirely sure what led to this but if I could turn back time I would… I loved her more than the sunlight or the air itself. She and the rest of my family here really did mean that much to me… Sasuke and Hinata included.

It's been so long… I'm just so damn tired…

My eyes got heavy and I let out a yawn.

**[Tired and Blinded]**

I was woken up by my Doctor.

After a half an hour where they let me eat something before I had to do the Physical exam, Mum was still in the room when they did it. She was sitting in one of the visitor chairs waiting quietly for everything to be over, when the Doctor was done he said that I was fine all things considered- he didn't expand on what were the things to be considered, but I suppose I was just glad that I was going to continue living at this point.

Now that they were gone though I was sitting up in my bed drinking from a plastic cup that had water in it while Mum seemed to have fallen asleep in the chair she had sat in, I wasn't sure how long I was out for, nor what happened but it's obviously been a rough ride for her. Her hair was getting greyer after all… not natural grey either, this was the silver colour we all had.

During the Examinations I did get to see my reflection finally and while I didn't have any new scars, the area around my left eye was lighter- the skin tone that is not to mention the eye itself had become a milky silver colour and there was basically no pupil or iris any more with it all being that colour now.

Actually it kind of reminded me of a Hyuuga's natural eye when their Byakugan wasn't activated.

Even now I traced my fingers around the blinded eye of mine, it was something I don't think I'll ever get used to with how everything is.

It wasn't long after I finished the water I had been left with that I decided to go back to sleep.

When I had finally woken up again I was being roused from my sleep by Mum as she loomed over me with a smile that told me more than any words could've, she was glad that it wasn't all a dream and that I really had woken up. She sat down at the end of the bed and waited for me, I assume was ready to answer any questions.

"So what happened?" I asked her simply.

"First… Takezou have you been using chakra as much as you can to properly expend it?" she asked back, so it was going to be like this?

I thought about it, I really did and when I came to my answer it made me want to smack my skull against a wall.

"No… no I haven't I've barely used it over the last few months let alone the last year." it was the truth, I had started to forget about using it, I no longer used it to regulate my body I no longer used it to enhance anything I did in my daily lif-

_**Crack**_

The resounding crack noise that my neck made when her hand connected in a slap actually frightened me more than what I remember of meeting Orochimaru.

"Don't you dare _ever_ do that again..." she was mad but there were still light tears rolling down her face. "I will not lose more of my family to this gods forsaken bloodline."

"..."

"Now… to answer your question you had a nightmare- I think it was triggered by the Kekkei Genkai… with it though that thing I told would happen, happened… and your Tenketsu were surged with chakra until your entire left arm was blown off." she stopped and I realized that Mum was biting her lip.

"Is… is there anything else?"

"Y- your f-f… your father d..." she trailed off as grief washed over her again.

"He… he is… dead?" I asked her as her composure broke and I was dragged into a hug yet again… "How? Mum."

There was a good twenty minute pause before she continued."He got- caught in the explosion… it destroyed part of the house too..."

It was all too much…

So much was gone…

Why?

Did I ask too much of the world?

Was I reborn just to suffer?!

I have so much good only to have it all fucking _**RUINED!**_

**[The Butterfly Was A Fleeting Dream]**

Do you think Coma's were going to start becoming a recurring theme? Because I think I've managed to end up in two of them now, not to mention they keep happening right as the world is beginning to make sense.

Right as I'm about to find _it_.

At the least the Doctors didn't seem to think I would be in here for long.

Other than that though I had managed to- after a while get mum to explain some more about everything to me, apparently now that people have been able to look at it our Kekkei Genkai is effectively creating its own kind of chakra that's a lot rawer then what you'd normally use and because of the density of the purity of it, the chakra is actually toxic or poisonous so to speak. Which is why our hair has the silvery grey, because it's literally had the age accelerated by the stress of it or whatever and the same goes for my eye, apparently the constant use of chakra was accelerating its degradation making it so my Eye lost its ability to see colour and then sight all together.

She's not entirely sure how it works in full either though, the Hokage had taken interest in the properties it had and how it acted up after what happened and so she and Mum had been working to understand it better. They had used samples of charka from me and Mum, it wasn't really like my sister was using chakra yet after all, plus my sisters ever so slight graying as like a few small strands of hair and not like the blotches of mine and mums though mine had surpassed even hers making a split down the center of my hair where the silver side met my natural hair colour.

Apparently one conclusion that they came to led them to believe when I kept blacking out that it was out Kekkei Genkai's fault because it was trying to force chakra or something like that and it had nowhere to go and just ended up in my head causing me to black out until my natural chakra that wasn't created by it pushed it out. It was kinda like a disease more than something useful, not to mention that it just seems to want to kill us. If mine was as bad as this now though imagine how much worse it would have been if I continued to be a shinobi? Apparently Mum's was more low impact because she hardly used chakra and the extreme amount I was using it was screwing my body up in more than a few different ways.

Which means…

That I have to use chakra regularly at a reasonable pace and keep myself from- from wall dying… not that its comfortable for me to know that If I had even wanted to go back to being a Ninja again that it would kill me, still this whole venture really does just keep getting worse.

I want to say is my life in some kind of sick joke or tragedy… but its been too damn fucking good so far to be either of those- I mean Hell I got reincarnated- or what ever the _Fuck!_ This is… how could I possibly hate it…

Seriously… it really is amazing to be given an amazing family like this… from Mum and Akatsuki to my Aunts and Uncles or my grandparents… it was awesome right? I mean like… I don't remember any of my old life anymore but I know enough to know that this isn't my first rodeo at the least.

But… I suppose everything has had a cost so far… I- Dad… he's… I still can't wrap my head around that… I'm sure my grandparents have had a horrible run seeing as they've managed to out live their youngest daughter and now their oldest son.

* * *

**AN: The story from this point on really is a lot of watching how his spiral downwards pushes whats left of Takezou around.**


	33. Arc 6 - No Longer Armed 4

**AN: I don't really have anything to say other than the next few chapters are pretty short and that they focus a lot on Take's internal struggle**

* * *

**Chapter Title: Lightning Leaf under the Sakura tree**  
**Arc 6**

* * *

You know… I don't think either of us expected each of us to be the person we saw.

Like I've been awake for about a week or two at most.

I was expecting Mum to come back with food and my Sister or anyone else from our family, but what I got was someone I hadn't really thought about since the 'party' we had when I had the final meeting with Sensei and the Hokage about my resignation.

By the look on her face she had expected to come in here, change the sheets and possibly replace flowers, at the most help whoever was in the room if they needed it. The genuine shock on her face was followed by her covering her mouth with her hands as she gasped dropping what she had been holding.

"Nice to see you again as well Sakura, though I'm sure we both expected me to have a shirt on the next time we talked." I said with a smile awkwardly, I had been in the middle of trying to change my shirt- and you might have guessed it was much harder when I only had one arm… I was struggling, I had nearly fallen over the side of my bed.

"I-I Ah-Uh!" she frantically looked away and grabbed the sheets off the ground and before I could ask for help with my shirt she'd disappear leaving stuck in an awkward position trying to put it on.

I sighed out loud dropping the shirt and letting fall onto my legs and just stared at the door waiting for someone to come in so that I could get some help, I wasn't petty, I wasn't going to make a fuss about- I didn't care that I was now a hazard and a problem for myself at this point.

"Guess I'll wait for Mum to come back..." turning my gaze down I looked at the images forever inked into my skin, I didn't even remember getting them… but for some reason looking at them made me smile slightly.

I waited for a while occasionally trying my hand at getting my shirt on again.

It didn't work.

Eventually someone knocked on the door again "Come in."

"Hello, it's nice to see you up Mr. Rakurai-" it was the Nurse who had been in charge of me over the last few days. "I've probably seen that- snake on your chest more times than anyone else in your life at this point." she joked.

"Could you help me with my shirt please?" I asked as she had stopped midway through stepping into the room, though she had come across this enough times to just take it at face value and came over to me and helped. I thanked her of course.

"Alright… now that I've done that-" Aoi stopped herself mid sentence again looking around the room confused. "Did your mother go home then?"

"Ah yeah she did, Mum left my sister with my aunt and uncle so she went to go check up on her then come back with some food." Pretty sure she was going home to have a nap too so that y'know she actually got some good sleep where she had been sleeping in a visitor chair so not exactly a good thing for her back.

"Okay, well tell her I said thanks anyway, I enjoyed talking to her." Aoi said as she began changing the sheets and pillowcase on the bed after moving me into one of the chairs.

"I'm sure she loved it too, I don't think she ever gets a chance to talk about Lightning." I replied as the woman smiled.

As anyone might have guessed based on what was just said, yes the lovely Nurse that I had looking after me was from the Land of Lightning and it didn't take long to figure out that I was a descendent- I mean my skin tone pretty much the same as the Nurses. Let alone the fact the Mum has been here the entire time to.

Anyway she and Mum spent a good amount of time talking to one another about their home, I don't think I had seen Kaede that joyful in a while. Plus I'm sure the distraction from all this crap going on was good for her, after all she had to help deal with Funeral arrangements- or well Dad's family was doing everything for it that they could so that Mum has less of a burden. It was cool though to hear about Lightning though, I really liked hearing where they grew up and what it was like for either of them.

"Here you go, fresh sheets and a fresh pair of clothes for you to change into later- don't forget that there is a help button on the wall next to your bed that will call someone to come."

"Oh yeah I did forget about that… also if you see Sakura Haruno- a girl with a pink hair and green eyes could you apologise to her for me, she came in earlier to bring in new sheets but caught me in the middle of trying to wriggle into my shirt- and it's not really like I can see out my left side." The Nurse laughed at hearing that.

"Quite the scenario you've found yourself in then? Don't worry about her though, she's the reason I'm here because she bumped into me on the way out so I helped her to find something else to do before coming here." she replied.

"Now though… I need to go, so don't you go scarring anymore teenage girls for life- after all you've got enough on you for two or three people." with that the Nurse known as Aoi Takahana went to leave-

"Wait! Since you're here could you help me out into the gardens? I want to get out of the room for a few hours." I called after her turning my head so that I could see her, I caught the tail end of a smirk as she walked back around to where I was now standing- she grabbed my hand and I was dragged along out of the room to presumably the garden.

**[Snakes and Blossoms]**

I found a tree to sit under once I had been left alone in one of the gardens at the Hospital, I'd probably been sitting under it for an hour at this point.

It was nice to relax outside like this.

So much was on my mind now that it was good to just let my mind rest from itself for once.

Still though… Dad… Nobuyuki… I really miss him, I- I just don't know how to react, I've never lived through this sort of thing before, how was I supposed to… y'know?

How was it that my life reached this point?

I've asked this before, but now it seems like that question means more.

I would've continued this little existential bout if my thoughts weren't interrupted by a voice.

"Takezou!" it sounded like Akatsuki's voice, she had become pretty amazing with her linguistic skills over this last while. Because of this I opted to open my eyes somewhat heavy as it was from the nap I had taken.

"Hell-o..." I yawned out bleary eyed seeing that it was indeed my sister who went from bright and happy to terrified and frightened for me at a moment's notice.

"Your arm is gone!" she yelled surprise flashing across her face as she ran up to me to see if it was an illusion or not, not far behind her was Mum, Aunty Ume, Uncle Matsuda and Irisu.

"Among other things I've noticed yes-omph!" she tackled me before I could finish my sentence.

"Kids these days… I can't believe what they're willing to do just to get out of working!" I heard my Aunt say jokingly coming over walking alongside Mum as my Uncle just stood off to the side and offered a nod and smile.

"I suppose I've been had." I responded lackadaisically, yawning again as I brushed my hair out of my face, it had gotten long enough that it was nearing the middle of my back.

I don't think I had cut my hair since around the Chuunin Exams, because they gave me a haircut once we were brought to the village after the explosion at my grandparents. I still remember the explosion… initially I actually didn't remember anything at all, but now I could recall watching Masamune hammer away at some steel lost in thoughts as the sparks flared around the work station.

It was still mesmerizing now to think about how it looked, but because of those sparks doing that to me I hadn't realized that a gas had leaked into the room and the sparks did what they do best and continued to stoke the flames.

A shiver ran down my spine waking me to the sound of someone's voice again as the visions of the explosion dissipated from my view- blinking a few times I returned to the real world to focus on the voices.

"Don't go falling asleep for too long now." Matsuda's light tone made me turn my head to see he was on the left of my against the tree with his daughter in lap, making me realize Akatsuki was using me as a mattress.

"Guess I'll stay awake for now then." I replied giving in to my sister's attempts and did what was effectively headpating.

The hot afternoon sun beat down on us under a cherry blossom tree.

I was pretty sure we were moving into Autumn already, which at this point wasn't surprising considering apparently I had been in hospital for another month and a half before I woke up to find myself like this.

This crap really was a recurring theme wasn't it?

"Have you thought about prosthetics?" my uncle spoke up again after ten or twenty minutes passed.

"Not really… _Shit!_" I cursed as something hit me. "I can't do Kyudo anymore- how could I not realize that?! Damn!"

"Keh- pftt HAHA-HAHA" My uncle began laughing so hard he had doubled over clutching his stomach. "I can't believe your life has changed terribly and one of your first thoughts is about not being able to continue using bows in your spare time!" he continued laughing while I had become quite red from embarrassment.

We stayed around the garden for another half hour until Mum came back with my Aunt and they said that I was going to be dismissed from the hospital as soon as possible after I had one last examination, and said exam would be tomorrow morning- I was looking forward to it.

**[Asleep Under the Tree]**

"So before you go have you looked at prosthetics?" Lady Tsunade asked me as the Nurse who had been in here for the exam left the room.

"Well my Uncle asked me if I had thought about it as well… I haven't and I'm not really sure about it either- is there like a catalogue?" the Hokage laughed at my question.

"Not exactly." she paused and seemed to think about it. "There are a few different models but nothing extremely advanced like those ones in Sunagakure."

"Damn so no poison dispensers then?" I joked getting a hollow laugh out of the woman before she turned back to a clipboard that she read for a few minutes.

"I'll be back in a few minutes with a couple options if you want to try them at the least." I nodded and she left the room.

Mum was in one of the chairs in the room waiting for me to be completely dismissed, so after the Hokage left she went back to fretting about the fact that she just met the Hokage for like the second time, I thought it was pretty funny but at the same time- it was a huge deal wasn't it? Like she is the leader of our village, it was something really cool and whatnot.

I suppose I had just been jaded to the idea of it because I didn't care about the Hokage or what it meant, I talked to Lord Third normally and I've yet to not do that with Tsunade.

They were people too after all, so I'd treat them with respect where I was supposed to, but in situations like this I was going to see Tsunade like a doctor. Which I'm glad to say that was how she wanted it when she first saw me in the hospital when Mum was with me initially a few weeks back.

After about half an hour later- I assumed she went and treated a few other people before coming back. She walked in with four different prosthetics.

"These are your options, first is a simple wooden one that has movable joints, the next is similar but plastic and has chakra wires in it to allow you as close to full control as we can get without getting our hands on Sasori of the red sands- apparently that kid has human puppets." she let me try on the two before showing me the next ones.

"This- chakra wire lined one is okay but it's a little, flimsy I guess? This wooden one is out of the question- I don't want to turn my life into a constant claw game." I handed them back to her.

"Alright here's the third then, well it's pretty different that's for sure- it's made from this strong plastic and then wrapped in a padded material that feels like an actual arm, only problem is that you can't move the wrist or fingers individually." I tried it on while she got out the last one.

"It feels nice that's for sure..." I twisted the arm around "Yeah not having the maneuverability is pretty shit though."

"Last and likely the best- a fully functional arm made with mostly lightweight metal and the smallest amount of something I'm told is called 'carbon fiber', its meant to be super strong and using chakra conductive wire and metal it the right spots its able to nearly perfectly replicate a real hand and to top it off there's little magnets in the palm and fingers to allow you to grip stuff." She explained it like this was a sales pitch.

"Uh..."

"Your grandparents made it for you. I was just seeing if you wanted to use the others before I gave it to you." she smirked to herself before leaving. "Damn thing is the most advanced prosthetic I've ever seen- though they said something about not using too much chakra with it since its a prototype." Tsunade walked out of the room with the rest of the arms leaving me to attach it with Mum's help.

It kinda reminded me of this blonde kid I remembered who did like alchemy or a Doll that wrote letters.

The arm piece came up to my shoulder and had these leather straps that wrapped across my chest, as it was, the straps were on over my t-shirt that I was wearing. It took me ten minutes before we thought it was on securely and then a few more minutes to get my chakra into it and play with the movement, flexing the fingers I just made them into a fist and make wavy motions until it felt right.

"So you knew about this didn't you?" I turned to Mum who was looking damn near gleeful with how bright her smile was.

"I did, yes." She gave me a hug. "It was going to be a present for your father, but because of what happened your grandparents changed it to fit you."

The door opened and the Hokage popped back in for a moment. "Oh and you're dismissed, so get out of my Hospital already Rakurai." with that she left, again.

* * *

**AN: **


	34. Arc 6 - No Longer Armed Part 5

**AN: Another double post, also this chapter's title is a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion, so is a small part of this chapter as it is the accumulation of all the things crashing down upon whats left of Takezou's mind**

**Though I did write from the second scene of this chapter onward while going through a bout of depression where in which I spent the entire day listening to Komm Süsser Tod, which is why part of the some makes an appearance.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: You Can (Not) Advance  
****Arc 6**

* * *

The sounds of clicking, clacking and clinking of the metal moving about in my prosthetic arm was something I had gotten used to over the last couple days since I got out, I had been handed a sword pretty quickly and Ume sent me straight back to teaching without much of any chance to try to get some rest.

My kids were confused and then very excited to see every inch of the arm over getting back to lessons, Ume had been teaching them while I was out so I wouldn't be surprised if she had either run them into the ground or she had just treated them like her own daughter and spoiled them. One of the two.

Something I decided pretty much immediately was that I wouldn't wear the arm unless I needed to, like with teaching the kids, training with Ume or Kyudo… actually I'm not sure about that yet.

The arm was still pretty heavy to support plus lack of depth perception makes using it hard still.

…

Dad had shown me the blueprint for the arm hadn't he?

I'm pretty sure he did…

Shit.

I suppose that's why the arm is made to fit someone with larger arms than mine.

A sigh escaped me as I looked around at the front of the Archery Dojo… I had been standing here for probably an hour if I was honest.

Trying to work up enough courage… or something like that.

A voice caught me off guard.

"You've been standing there for a while now, are you looking to join the Doj-" the voice trailed off.

"Takezou!" Her tone was surprised…

Wait… this was- "Yumi." I stated her name rather than sounding surprised.

"What… what happened to you?!" She came up and began walking around me looking at everything, I was wearing a Kimono at the moment along with ninja sandals because it was easier to move around in this while I was still getting used to not being able to see properly. Though I didn't have my arm through the left sleeve so my undershirt was in view with the prosthetic hanging out of the Kimono.

"Your… your hair is almost completely white… metal arm? And… your eye..." she poked the prosthetic and then my left cheek under my eye.

"I can't see out of it." I said, making her freeze, lowering her hand.

"You can't?" Yumi let out a sad and hollow laugh. "I… Takezou, are you alright?" her eyes were tearing up.

"No, I'm not… this wasn't from someone though, apparently it's related to my family's chakra or whatever." dismissed with a fake smile.

"Anyway- let's go inside, you may not be using any bows for a while but at least the view would be better in there." and with that I was dragged inside, though I sat off the side and I just ended up watching until the sun went down, I talked to a few people, Souichirou sat down with me and kept me distracted for a good majority of the time.

Watching all the people come and go, I was mostly watching Yumi though…

I mean she was pretty.

Beautiful even.

I wouldn't say that to her face though, aside from the fact that it was uncomfortable enough to be around her while I was going through hormones and puberty again. I wasn't even sure if she liked me more then as a friend, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I didn't originally have any intention of dating or anything like that.

But now, I felt like that had changed… maybe it was losing so much of myself that I feel like I'm not the same person, but at the least I wanted to try to find something.

If I wasn't going to be a Ninja, then it might be nice to have someone…

**[A Cruel Angel's Thesis]**

The house felt empty.

Obviously that was weird because Mum and Akatsuki were around.

I was standing in Dad's study without really knowing why…

I started crying… I wasn't sure when it happened, but the tears just rolled down my face. I wiped my face, at least this useless eye of mine could still cry…

This was shit, I hated it.

Everything was crumbling huh? It was like a switch being flicked as a song played in my head. It was a song I had never heard yet knew I had heard? Was it from that part of my mind I no longer remembered?

_I know, I know I've let you down_

_I've been fool to myself_

_I thought that I could_

_Live for no one else_

_But now_

_through all the hurt__＆__pain_

_It's time for me to respect_

_The ones you love_

_Mean more than anything_

_So with sadness in my heart_

_I feel the best thing_

_I could do_

_is end it all_

_and leave forever_

_what's done is done it_

_feels so bad_

_what once was happy now is sad_

_I'll never love again_

_My world is ending_

_I wish that I could turn back time,  
'cause now the guilt is all mine.  
Can't live without the trust from those you love,  
I know we can't forget the past._

_You can't forget love and pride,  
because of that it's killing me inside…_

_It all returns to nothing,  
it just keeps tumbling down,  
tumbling down. Tumbling down._

_It all returns to nothing, I just keep letting me down,  
letting me down. Letting me down..._

I wasn't planning on killing myself, the song just came to mind while I felt so awful like this. Staring at the arm that was meant for dad as it sat on his desk, in his study where I stood alone wiping my tears away. Maybe I was just slipping mentally again and the world was tumbling down.

But if I could pull the memory of a song out of a mind that could no longer remember further back than my last few years at the academy, then maybe I could still salvage what was left of this head of mine.

A song so well done it embodied and told the story of a feeling that everyone has whether they admit it or not, something so strong that it transcends just enough to help me verbalize how I feel about all this.

Losing an eye, losing my arm, losing… losing my father, a real tangible person who I loved with all my soul, losing Sasuke to the cradle robbing trouser snake. But I've had so much at the same time, an amazing loving family, friends that I would give anything to keep safe and they would do much the same to me, wacky chakra powers that let me walk up walls or on water and all the other stuff it can do. Yet there was always that feeling dwelling in me that this was all fake, that I shouldn't get attached because it might just crumble or tumble down returning to nothing.

I may not remember much past the academy but I do know that it isn't my first life, and all I wanted to know was why it was me? Could anybody else be like me in this situation? If there were others, could I meet them? What would happen if I- died again? Assuming I died the first time around.

Who was "Takezou Rakurai"

If that was me, then what made that me?

Argh!

"This so stupid! Why am I even trying to do this-" I was cut off when the door opened, I turned to see Aunty Rei.

"You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness?" she closed the door and walked around me to the desk, she sat down on the chair behind it and opened up one of the drawers. "Well go on- sit down in the chair." she pointed to the chair I was standing next to.

"Um…? Why are you going through Dad's desk anyway?"

"Well I'm not questioning my reasons for living like you seemed to be- which by the way if you _ever_ thought about just killing yourself, I would sooner _strap you to a crucifix_ then let you do _that_." I don't think I'd ever seen anyone have as fierce an expression as she gave me.

Clearing my throat I tried to change the topic. "So… you're an ANBU right?"

"Hm? Oh yeah I am, why? I'm going to let you join them if that's what you're asking- plus you aren't much use to anyone if you only have one arm." She was far too easy going about just saying that 'yes I am in fact one of the Villages most elite ninja'

"What no! It's just because you always wear gear that made me think you were one." I watched as her brow furrowed.

"How do you know what we wear?" Rei asked, brushing her Auburn hair out of her eyes.

"What do you mean? If you go to one of those stores where you can get Shinobi stuff there's an entire section of stuff that is just labeled 'ANBU style'... actually why are they allowed to do that?"

"What- the fuck? They didn't have that there when I was a kid, and now they're just letting all you kids know how ANBU dress? That's insane!" She seemed peeved about it.

"You wanted to know why I was over right? it was because your Dad had something in here for me that he had been holding onto before he passed." she said after a few minutes passed and she was still digging through the desk.

"Oh… okay."

Rei gave me an incredulous look with her Heterochromic eyes, the left was ocean blue and the right was emerald green.

"You know that thing has a spot where a blade can be mounted and recede into itself for later use, right?" she offered while looking at the arm I had put on the desk over an hour or so ago when I first walked in.

"Really?" I was kinda excited to hear that. "Wait how do you know?"

"I gave them some ideas about it, your Dad wanted to go back into active service and so I said he should put something in it, so now a sword comes out." she paused for a minute. "Seeing as it's still there I think he liked it."

With that she pressed a finger onto a piece of it with a small discharge of charka that was almost unnoticeable the wrist detached and on the now flat surface a blade the length of a Katana's came out, I picked up the now detached hand letting some chakra into it and moving the fingers on it for a moment before pressing a little into the spot Aunty Rei had and the blade retracted leaving the flat part free for me to re-attach the hand.

"Whoa..."

"Pretty cool huh?"

**[Depression Unknown]**

I was never going to find a reason to use the ejectable sword.

For starters I had to detach the hand to let it out, so that was already an annoying feature seeing as I didn't use swords often anyway. Plus the biggest part becomes the part where I was naturally right handed so it being my left hand was an issue- which leads back around to the fact that I can't see out of my left eye so everything was back to being mute and null again.

I wasn't wearing it today either, it's been about a week since I contemplated who I was in Dad's study which had become mine by extension seeing as Mum just used it as a library. I mostly just sat down at the desk and read or worked on lessons when I had time now, teaching again had been fun, I didn't wear the arm for that either. I didn't wear it when I went to Kyudo, I… I guess I just don't use it unless I really need to.

As for what I was doing right now though, I had walked up to the top of the village and was sitting on the railing/walkway that was on the monuments. I'd never come up here but I knew about it. Watching over the village like this was nice, it was somewhat tough because I nearly stumbled off the walkway earlier.

It had gotten a lot cooler recently so I was wearing my tan cloak that I got all that time ago, it was nice and comfortable in the Autumn winds. I probably looked like some cartoon character or movie character, pretty tall, one eye is useful, only one arm- I use swords and enjoy archery… My body of scars is not unlike that of my grandparents' hearts of fire and bodies of smelted steel, or my mother's heart of slow burning embers always providing warmth and ready to be stoked into action and help.

There were definitely people who were older than me that were far worse off, but I was the only person in our age range that was this fucked up-

"Haha- Hahaha!" I laughed into the cold breeze opening my arms wide "I really am fucked aren't I!"

my laughter continued as I clutched my stomach as it became too much for me, doubling over I came to a stop and wiped the building water from my eyes, even if I could see out of one of them they both still cried just as well or could water up.

Putting my palm to my face and splaying my fingers out as a dark smile override what expression I had before I chuckled darkly to myself for a moment.

"What was that stupid quote again…? _In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control; even over his own will._" I spoke it in a Language I didn't know what was…

I couldn't place where I got it from but it was in my head…

"_**It's a load of shit the lot of it!**_" I slammed my fist into the railing denting it "_Fuck!_"

I just wanted Dad back.

Why…?

I was having another breakdown- and why shouldn't I? This world is shit!

I hated it.

"_This world is Hell_." _The boy cloaked in darkness screamed unto the heavens as he was covered in blood with the corpse of the woman he loved sitting at his feet as he crumbled to the ground and clutched it bringing it to his face all the while his remaining right eye, it blazing red and twitching as the odd pupil altered unnaturally. Having lost the left._

Moving my hand down I fished something out of my pants pocket, I fumbled with the small box nearly dropping it on the metal walkway. Finally raising my hand I flicked the white slightly crumpled box with a red diagonal across it from right to left, a familiar box to anyone who knew him- after all I had even jokingly warned him about them, but now… now all that was left was the hole he left…

I wake up to the sound of Kaede crying about him every night.

It fucking hurts-

Every.

Single.

Damn.

Time!

"_Shit!_" I cursed out loud as I placed the cigarette in my lips and lit it by drawing on what fire chakra I could muster making a lighter out of my thumb.

I nearly emptied out the whole damn cancer stick in one intake before blowing out a huge smoke cloud into the wind-

"Ack!" I started coughing as it filled my lungs.

After recovering I snapped what was left of it and flicked it into the wind before pulling out another one and I began smoking like someone who had been doing it for years- I watched the old man do it for so long maybe it rubbed off on me…

I paused my sigh of relief at how great I felt from it when water hit my lap as I realized I was crying. Leaving the pre rolled cigarette in my mouth I tried at wiping them away, but the water works wouldn't stop. It only got worse as I thought about Mum and Dad again.

I was so sick of this.

Standing up from where I had my legs dangling over the edge I got up on top of the railing taking another inhale of the cigarette, closing my eyes I stepped off the cliff.

The rush of air was exhilarating yet terrifying- freefall always terrified me. _More than the terror from the forest of death._

"I WISH THIS NIGHTMARE WOULD JUST END-" I screamed at the world as I plummeted toward the ground.

_Where is my mind?_

_Where was my mind?_

_Where had I gone?  
_

* * *

**AN: So after what I wrote at the top I thought I'd clarify that Take's feelings and words aren't connected to that, if anything it helped me understand how to write it at the time, anyway though. It's no longer the same Takezou, he's becoming a true shell of himself.**


	35. Arc 7 - You Are (Not) Alone 1

**AN: Hmm, the longer I look at this chapter the less I like it and I still can't tell what it is.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: A third lease on life**  
**ARC 7 - You Are (Not) Alone**

* * *

"It's only been like a week- did you really think I had forgotten already?" a woman's voice asked from my right.

"Wha…?" my skull was pounding.

When my eye opened I caught sight of Rei.

"I didn't think you'd actually try though… I don't think I can tell your mother about this- it's too much for that woman to have, her shoulders already have so much on them at the moment."

"Where am I?" I asked groggily as I sat up realizing that we were on the forest floor beneath the mountain.

Looking around I saw the cigarette I had been smoking was a few meters away smoke rising from its embers, Dad's packet was sitting next to me undamaged- or at least no less than it was before I got a hold of it.

"I won't say anything about smoking right now, because I'm no better. I used to drink until my mind stopped and always hoped that I wouldn't wake up come morning..." My aunt said ignoring my question. "I understand that pain."

"Thanks." the words fell out of my mouth before I could register the thought.

"You have a loving sister and mother though, so just stick to smoking if it helps you- Izanagi knows you'll need it, but just remember that killing yourself will only make things worse."

"I know it all too well, the ANBU is the worst job anyone could ever get, I probably would've killed myself as well if your Uncle Toyohisa hadn't stopped me that night like I just did for you." her voice was firm and I knew that there was no room for talking at the moment. "I own your life at the moment because of that and with it I say you have to continue living no matter the pain you feel, no matter how hard it gets- we're all here for you."

A few silent minutes passed and the night sky provided us a full moon.

"Have you ever thought about it since?" I asked, looking to her eyes as they met mine.

"At times when things seemed bleak- but thats why I had Erika, because I would hate to know that I left my own flesh and blood alone in this world without someone to be her mother, so here I am getting by and enjoying it where I can. Loving my daughter and hopefully soon I'll have a son- then I can finally stop being a Ninja." She sounded solemn and almost resentful of having ever been a Ninja in the first place.

"That does sound like a good reason..." I sighed audibly as I thought about everything.

"Ume really was right- you do sigh like a maid in love." Rei laughed to herself breaking what serious mood she had set up between us. "Maybe thats it- go find someone to love and that you know you wouldn't dare leave the world while you both loved one another- there's probably a few girls from your class or maybe that archery club you do right?"

I suddenly felt like our serious talk about what happened had turned into something else.

**[That wasn't it]**

Another week passed and Rei really hadn't told anyone about it.

I was thankful for it, I had kept up with smoking though, mostly I just went for a walk out into the more out of the way parts of the village to do it.

Like right now, I was walking through one of the large parks that were basically just forests, though I think this connected to the training grounds… I hope it didn't. It would be weird if I stumbled into the middle of some people training while out here to smoke. I was dressed in a grey kimono and sandals today as well so I would just come across as some villager looking for a nice spot to sit for a while, and I mean that was what I was doing, but I would prefer to not have that happ-

"Takezou?" A familiar voice cut my thoughts off as they often seemed to do so.

"Ah? Hi?" I turned to where the voice came from and I looked into the eyes of my Sensei, Asuma was smoking a cigarette himself as he leaned against a tree at the edge of the open field I had been about to walk into.

"What- what happened to you?! Holy shit!" the cigarette dropped to the ground and his mouth was agape watching me taking it all in.

"It's been a while Sensei, I'm glad you're okay." I was really glad nothing had happened to him, I really was.

Before I could blink he was in front of me and his arms wrapped around me and he seemed to notice what was really wrong with me aside from my face.

"Your- your arm?! What the hell happened to you?" He sounded worried, it made me happy for some reason to hear it in his voice.

"My Kekkei Genkai got to me- I can't see out of this eye anymore and my arm exploded." I responded solemnly.

"Damn really?" Sensei was really flabbergasted by the whole thing. "Did this happen because you stopped being a Shinobi?"

"Kind of- it was more my negligence because I just stopped using chakra for a while and it caught up with me- anyway how are you doing?" as I asked I put a cigarette into my mouth naturally without really thinking about it.

"Whoa wait what- you're smoking now?" he asked ignoring my question.

"Oh-Uh… yeah, it's a more recent thing I picked up."

"Right... well I'm doing well, though team ten has become a mix of team 7, 9 and 10 with Hinata, Kiba and the Aburame- Shino along with myself, Kakashi and Kurisu the sensei of team 9 all coming and going or occasionally working together with the team to d missions." he lit my cancer stick for me while lighting his own as he answered.

"Really? Hinata, Kiba and Shino? So I guess the team is like a tracking ground now then?" Asuma made a face that seemed to be on the fence about calling it that.

"Kind of, we're in the middle of training now if you want to come over?"

"Sure, I haven't seen Hinata in a long while."

It took us a few minutes to walk over to where they were and on the way Sensei and I caught up and I explained everything a little better and told him about the prosthetic that my grandparents made for Dad that had ended up with me because he had died. Sensei stopped us just to hug me and talk about dad making our walk take a little longer- but it reminded me that Lord Third was his dad and that he died during the exams.

When I caught sight of the team it was actually just Hinata and Kiba, I didn't see Shino anywhere around.

The closer we got the more I realized the two had changed, Akamaru was pretty enormous now, Kiba was wearing a black leather jacket- Hinata… well she had longer hair, and was wearing a different hoodie… she looked beautiful. Yet she was still the girl that I often called my sister and so it made me want to go up to her, give a huge hug and tell her how much I loved and missed having her around...

Kiba had turned and seemed to catch us in his view.

"Hey Sensei! Back from your smoke break!" he called out with a big grin. "And who's this guy? Is he an old friend or something?" he asked, looking at me.

_Did I really look that old? Did I really look that different?_

"N-" Asuma was about to answer when I cut him off and answered instead.

"Yeah I've known him for a while, my name is Yasuke- what's yours?" I asked, a smile growing as I tapped the cigarette, knocking the ash off it before realizing it was to the filter and crushed it before stuffing the leftover back into the box. I had this old vague memory where I was in the snow talking to a princess and told her that was my name… so I thought I would use it here.

Kiba paused realizing something and went to open his mouth.

"Takezou!?" Hinata's voice sounded so worried and concerned that I almost cried for her with how sad it sounded coming from her and just the way she realized who I was.

Seeing her nearly tear up as I opened my arm out wide and waited for a hug made me see why I had been wrong, that Rei had been right, I had just jumped to conclusions and over stressed myself with everything that was going on.

I could remember Sasuke saying something about my stress lines- they were on a similar level to his brothers.

"I'm glad to see the two of you again." something so true fell from my mouth yet it almost felt fake, though maybe that was something tugging on my mind trying to remind me.

Letting my teammate go from said hug I don't think I could've smiled any brighter really.

"You got taller." I joked looking at the Inuzuka and Hyuuga.

"Yeah well you look like you aged ten years in the few months since we last talked." Kiba poked back, Hinata still being quiet and withdrawn.

We continued to talk for an hour or so and eventually Hinata seemed to return from a distant land/whatever was keeping her mind off the conversation, when she did though she went right into talking like we had when Sasuke was around or when there was training. Like nothing had changed, and I liked that about her for sure, it was nice when people don't focus on my appearance at the moment.

**[Forgetting Where]**

It really hadn't taken long for me to become addicted to tobacco and smoking.

Something I probably should have seen coming as well considering it all, Mum had found out about it as well, which also hadn't taken long and I also should have seen coming. She did live with a man who presumably smoked for well over two decades after all, she wasn't surprised though but she did ask me for one- which was what led to our current situation where we were sitting on the back patio smoking together.

Mum looked like she'd never done it before in her life, though she had a glass of wine and that wasn't really all that normal as you might have guessed.

My sister was at Ume's on a playdate, so Mum and I were alone for this.

Kaede looked so defeated that it hurt, she had lost a husband half the house was still being remade and her son was sitting next to her smoking her partners cigarettes and looked so far beyond different that he could pass off as being someone else.

She earned being able to drink something alcoholic after all this shit.

Despite all this though I looked forward to everything slowly moving back into what was normal for our family, Mum had taken time off work until the house was fixed then she'd go back, my sister was going to be enrolled in kindergarten or the academy in a few months. I was resuming my Kenjutsu lessons with my class and I would hang out at the Kyudo dojo.

We weren't too far off December either which meant another festival that would have the village celebrating the new year, and… it would snow.

It hadn't snowed in the last decade so I was looking forward to the snow again, plus now that an entire country had changed from snow to- spring? Which was stupid because that doens't make any sense. It was also too bad for them that the machine they were using got busted up and stopped working so it had gone back to being the Land of Snow pretty quick.

Something I hadn't really considered what this really was that all this was another lease on life, the third lease I suppose.

There was that other life I knew of, but not what happened in it, I had lost all connection to it aside from knowing of it.

Was that something I should care about? It felt like something that I had once placed a great amount of fear in losing, like not being myself anymore.

It was a scary thought wasn't it? To not know who you were? To forget who you are. Something that the gods would only know.

Days passed, weeks. Maybe more.

It was like a switch was flipped when the weather changed, one day it was relatively warm and then the next it was as cold as the land of iron.

The snow was beautiful.

We had moved into late November before it had actually begun to fall which meant Winter had come pretty late for the Land of Fire, though that wasn't all that out of place.

* * *

**AN: Almost there, at the end of the line.**


	36. Arc 7 - You Are (Not) Alone 2

**AN: So this story is rough, and not like heavy tones rough but like pretty iffy as far as reads go I'd say, and I've had a lot of time to look back on it, but no matter how much I think about how nice it would be to rewrite parts that I didn't really like I still love it a fair amount. Though Maybe thats because of the philosophies and whatnot present in it that made it feel closer to home that it actually is.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: The Cracks Breaking it All**  
**ARC 7 **

* * *

I woke up screaming.

On the floor of my room.

"_MY ARM!_"

"_**AAAAAAARGH!**_"

"Make it_** STOP**_, make it _Stop!_"

My arm felt like it had been blown off in some explosion-

Phantom Pains shrouded my left arms stump as I felt someone's embrace tightening around me, my hand was clamped around the stump as it writhed with pain and tortured my mind.

The yelling died in my throat as the pains began to fade somewhat as it did begin to let up on my body and everything around me became clearer. I realized that there was some amount of sunlight trying to make its way into the room through the gaps in the curtains, my eye spent quite a while trying to focus on everything in my room.

"'Ake?" my sister's voice brought my attention towards where I now saw her looking very frantic and scared slowly crawling toward me.

I realized among other things that I was curled up into a ball tucked into myself still gripping the stump of my left arm while a blank that had been on my bed was tangled around me, along with this Mum was- well my head was on her lap while my sister continued to close in before launching us.

After recovering from subsequently being hit by Akatsuki when she launched at Mum and me, I tried to get up when I felt a pressure on my body keeping me down and still using Kaede's lap as a pillow.

"Mum could you please let me up? I feel better no-"

"No."

"What?! What do you mean?" I angled my head so that I could see her, she was smiling slightly.

"Takezou, are you alright?" She ignored my question.

I wasn't really sure what she wanted, this had happened a few times before or at least I mean to say these phantom pains showed up within the last month. We were in early December so it was pretty cold right now just laying on the floor like this, sure Akatsuki had a blanket but she had stolen it off my bed and was basically holding onto Mum for extra warmth.

"I'm doing fin-"

"I asked how you were Take, are you alright?" Her tone was more serious and it surprised me for some reason. "You- you're my son and second child… just because your older sister isn't here to look after you for me doesn't mean I'll neglect how much this is all affecting you"

At the mention of Katsuya… Kaede's voice sounded like she was holding back tears. It shocked me that she would even really talk about the sister I would have grown up with if not for complications, she never talked about her and only ever did much about her when her birthday came around- from what I could remember she would visit a Shrine on Katsuya's birthday and would celebrate it.

That might be a sad fact, but it was the truth, I think it's why Mum is so clingy with 'Tsuki and me let alone with Sasuke and Hinata when they had come over.

Ever since I stopped being a Shinobi or even before that when I had slowed down and started doing less missions she became happier, she was so proud and glad when I told her that I was teaching kids at Ume's dojo.

Honestly I think she was just scared of losing everything in her life, she was already so close to that.

"I'm terrified of dying, losing my arm has made my life so much harder and I hate it." I began rambling off how I was really feeling to her. "Losing my eye has made it hard to talk to people just because they won't make eye contact for fear of offending me for staring at it, I'm- I'm scared that's why I stopped being a shinobi- I hate that I killed people and can't get their faces out of my head- sometimes I would see them when I was at Kyudo..."

"Sometimes I wake up screaming into the night silently and it's always from the same dream where I'm back in the Forest of Death- it always ends with Hinata and Sasuke being killed in front of me and I can't do anything to stop it- I feel so weak next to everyone..."

"For all that I can remember of being a kid I've always been frightened _that everything I do isn't enough- that I'm not strong enough- I'm not fast enough- I'm not smart enough_\- that… that I'll lose even more than I already have..."

"Aunty Rei helped me a little not too long ago when something happened, but no matter how many people are around me_ I feel inadequate_ and _**useless **_in comparison to everyone… I don't have a goal! **I don't have an Ambition!** Nothing to dream of! Only a head of thoughts- A body of scars and a heart filled with fears-"

I was cut off from ranting when my mother who was now crying had dragged me up and was holding me tight, tighter than all those hugs in the hospitals. Akatsuki had joined as well, kids were always more perceptive than adults and I knew that she understood what was happening more than someone might give her credit for.

All I wanted was something to hold and have, something that I could strive towards.

It's why I had thought Rei's suggestion about finding someone was something I might actually do, because then I could have someone… someone else… something more… I just wanted something.

Everything has had a price too.

How else could you explain it all?!

An amazing and loving family- that got me chakra that's trying to kill me! I'm sure of it! Losing Dad and my left eye and arm had to be for all the good things that had finally started happening to me!

**[Thoughts Of His Arm]**

It was later in the day now, Mum had finally let me go, Akatsuki was still sticking around and providing a distraction while Mum had started making food. We were in Dad's study, I was in my black Kimono with some thick socks I had brought a while ago, we had the heater on and my sister wrapped up in the blanket from my bed sitting on a couch that was in the room reading a book out loud. I would help her with words when she got stumped.

Otherwise I was just looking through the pages of a notebook that had been on one of the shelves, I thought it was weird seeing as I had this vague memory of burning a bunch of these notebooks written by me. There was another one next to it written out in Dad's handwriting that was about Jutsu and such.

There was a knock on the door and Mum opened it "Foods ready you two." was all she said and 'Tsuki had already bounced out of the room as mum was turning away, I followed slowly after.

We all sat down and ate together, she had made enough food to feed us five times over.

The day went on and the leftovers were eaten for dinner as well and based on how much there still was left I would say we'd be eating it all for at least the next few days.

Mum did end up staying in the study with my sister and I, she was reading a book for the most of it, other than that she was asking me about teaching at the Dojo and what it was like for me to prepare stuff for them, she asked about their names and whatnot. Outside of that discussion she was helping Akatsuki.

The next morning I decided to get dressed in my Konoha blues- while I wasn't a Shinobi anymore the clothes were well insulated so I could keep myself warm in them and I used my chakra to give it that extra omph. Aside from them though I did put on the prosthetic arm under everything as well as that I put boots on because I didn't want to freeze my toes and put my hooded cloak as well as a pair of black gloves before heading out.

Once outside though I began trekking through the snow until I reached a point where there were enough buildings close enough together for me to hop from roof to roof.

The crunching of snow under my boot filled my ears along with all the voices I could hear coming from below in the streets where all the citizens of Konoha were still out shopping, working or setting up for the upcoming festival that I was actually looking forward to. Aside from all that though, I was still thinking about yesterday morning, I had never really done something like that before as far as I was aware.

I imagine most everyone would have never done something like that, even now I can't believe I said so much. Some of it didn't even sound like stuff that was in my head, but at the same time it was everything that I felt.

What I was traveling through the village for was to visit the Kyudo dojo and see about at least figuring out if I could use a bow with this new arm, then I would head to my grandparents to discuss the arm itself and if I had time I would get lunch and head up to the top of the Hokage monument to eat because I really did like the view up there.

It was while I was hoping roofs that I felt a weight in the inner pocket of the cloak as whatever it was bounced out and fell to the ground hitting some metal on its way, which was what actually made me realize it had happened because it was so loud. Stopping a few buildings away I turned back to where I thought I had heard it and in the snow lying face up was my hitai-ate on the black cloth I had it on- having never actually gotten around to getting a hat or bandana for it.

Picking it up off the snowy ground with my left arm the sunlight glinted off it.

"Huh… haven't seen you in a while." looking over the cloth and metal my brow furrowed before I took it in my right hand and tied it around my neck for the time being, after that I began walking away then leapt off.

As I continued I thought about the headband and all the memories that I had forgotten now resurfacing with it.

It reminded me that Sasukes was at home in my room next to our team photo that I had on my desk, I would see him again some day, I wasn't sure when but I would and I knew that I would give it back to him.

That's how I would welcome him home properly.

Well that or a party with Sensei and Hinata there.

I… I don't remember him too well, but if he's like everyone else then I should remember them and our memories together again when I lay my eyes on him, I had originally forgotten a fair bit about Sensei as well as Hinata and our academy classmates until I saw them in person again.

Actually… I don't really remember what Sasuke looks like, all I remember is red eyes. Hypnotic red patterned eyes, I'm not sure why, but that's all I can draw from my memories of his looks when I think about him solely.

That didn't matter at the moment though I slowed down as the Kyudo Dojo came into sight, hoping down into the street I walked towards the building.

**[Archery Was Like Snowflakes]**

It was probably mid afternoon when I finally left my grandparents house and headed out to get something to eat. Finally, I had gotten something to snack on at the Dojo, but it wasn't really enough to satiate me until I got home.

On my way to buy food I passed a ramen stall that looked vaguely familiar 'Ichiraku' the Kanji on the signs outside of it read, It was probably sacrilege to mention as much, but I didn't like ramen. I just never really felt attracted to the tastes it offered, it was probably why I had a love for cooking so much. Though it had been a while since I had gotten a chance to do as much.

Hmm.

I wasn't really sure if Mum had started teaching Akatsuki about cooking, but I was probably going to start doing that soon seeing as I had so much time on my hands or hand. I'm sure it would be fun, plus the best part about cooking is eating the food when you're done, and obviously when you cook better stuff the experience is better.

Anyhow I continued on to a stall that I was relatively familiar with going to that sold a wide variety of hot meals, those of which had become quite popular now that it was so cold. Gratefully when I arrived though there wasn't a huge line or anything, just two or three people getting their orders. I brought Yakitori and Gyoza, I wasn't really interested in buying sweets at the moment, mainly because that involved a tea shop that mostly had Shinobi customers.

Wait…

Oh.

I'm still wearing my…

Stopping I walked over to a planter. I put down the food and took off the Hitai-ate that was still tied up around my neck. I had completely forgotten it was there, was I used to wearing it?

I still can't remember much about my time as a Ninja, only that it happened, which was why I didn't know much about my own team.

There's still so much I don't know.

It took awhile for me to reach the spot I wanted to have lunch at even when I was roof hopping, mostly because I misjudged the jumps on more than a few occasions resulting me catching the said of a building where it seemed my Ninja training kicked in and I began walking up the wall of the building. There was something about it happening that always filled my head with images that felt like they were my memories, but at the same time like they were someone else's.

Walking onto the metal walkway that hung off the side of the mountain I looked out over the snow covered village and all the buildings that had lights on, the big red building that was the Hokage's tower and the academy which I could still see a few kids playing around near even from this far away, though I owed that up to the chakra that always seemed to do things for me without me really doing anything with it actively. Like it was just in mine or its nature to just do it.

Something about seeing the smoke stacks coming from many of the houses that had fireplaces reminded me of Dad, It also reminded me of my new addiction and how much I craved for a cigarette at that very moment.

* * *

**AN: Next Week is the final chapter and likely my favourite one I ever wrote for it, it's a reference to one of my all time favourite Fate Series movies- well not really a reference more like an homage to it.**


	37. Arc 7 - You Are(Not) Alone End

**AN: Yo this is the finale.**

* * *

**Chapter Title: It was the Oath Under Snow**  
**Arc 7 End.**

* * *

It was December twenty second, people were out celebrating the Tohji-Taisai and a huge festival was going on causing the village to cease most of its activities to allow everyone time off to enjoy all there was on offer to them. The celebration of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu leaving the cave after being calmed down from being angered by her brother.

For him though, something was wrong.  
_  
I thought it would never happen again…_

_That I'd never see it again…_

_Yet here I was…_

_The snowflakes fell with a grace unknown to man as they found their path and drifted along the easy breeze of cool Winter air, the frigid temperature temporarily forgotten as eyes cast themselves upon the snow that laid at the feet of all. Everything was slowly beginning to get carpeted in a new layer of the fluffy soft white snow, children cheering could be heard in the distance as the night sky starry open and vast let it fall from the dark clouds looming above._

_The embrace of the snow that covered the Village Hidden Amongst the Tree Leaves filled many with joy despite the disruptive nature of it to the many businesses across it. The festivities continued with mirth and cheer._

_In the middle of a street stood a boy- no a man with one arm, blood like coloured hair that had mostly become silverish grey, he stood alone in the spotlight of a street lamp as snow fell and covered him and the ground all around him._

_He held a cold look of resignation and understanding at the loss he was presented with, he had yet again lost something precious to him… was there no end to it?_

_He did not know, and that's why he chose to strive for something at least while he was still able._

_There was a part of him that still couldn't process what had happened to him._

_She had confessed her love to him only for the moment he was about to respond to be crushed as a hole was blasted through her shoulder from a blade, the horror on her face and the surprise the flashed across his as he watched her crumple to the ground where he caught her picking her up and running away supporting her the best he could running into the building they had practiced Archery in for years together. He glanced at the wound and immediately wished he hadn't as the crimson liquid drenched the girls clothing, a Kimono and Hakama alike that of which they wore to practice, and covered the white shirt he had been wearing along with his pants and shoes. He kept her on his right side to ensure he could see everything as they tumbled through the heart of the building._

_**Rouge**_

_His breath caught in the moment that the equipment that was laid on the floor caused them to trip and fall, where he found himself struggling to stand where they stood in the open air of the target range. She stood tall and strong with a new resolve over taking her in the moment the bow and arrows were aimed at the attacker and she pulled the notched arrow back further to increase the weight behind it only for the bow to snap- _

**Crack**

_She remembered this bow…_

_It was the one from earlier in the day that had a crack running through the length of it- she had taken it off someone before they could hurt themselves using it…_

_The light left her eyes as her resolve was shot and died in the moment-_

_The_** Squelch **_and _**Cracking** _of her chest being blown out- all the flesh and bone spraying viscera all over the snow covered it red like rose petals. His heart stopped as the one last time he watched the smile he had come to love disappear from her face as her head hit the ground dead to the world.  
__**  
Rouge**_

It was Hell

_**Rouge**_

_it had to be._

_**Rouge**_

_The hand that was stuck through her chest held its position blood dripping from it and the blade in its grip._

_He felt a surge of _

**Emotion**_ that he'd never felt before it was so strong that he didn't even remember moving, everything was a blur in his mind as everything from his movements down to his breathing was decided for him as he battled the person to the death without really knowing how or why…__**Noir**_

_When he felt his mind return he was stood alone in a field of Kunai littered around him with the corpse of his opponent dead, beaten, bloodied and butchered like an animal- or beast had gotten to it. All the kunai that were stabbed into the ground were covered in blood, small paper tags blowing in the wind as the words of a voice penetrated his mind._

"**I'Ll SeE yOu In HeLl**" _the voice was distorted and choked as it came from the mouth of a body being strangled right before the throat was ripped right out of him._

_There stood a man alone in a street far from any immediate people, covered in blood, his hair a similar colour though most of it had already greyed from the taxation on his mind, body and soul. His blood drenched appearance only made worse by how freshly it still dripped from his fingertips…_

_The snow beneath him had become a deep crimson._

_"_

I'm already in Hell…_" the dark skinned man stood alone in the street said to no one in particular as his eyes cast themselves upon the night sky as the snowflakes fell.__**Rouge**_

_The red flashed across his mind again, reminding him that it had filled his vision before he snapped._

_His body of scars and heart like that of a chipped sword all screamed internally as everything settled in his mind, creating a hollow feeling of dread and anguish, all he could wish for was for it to stop._

"Oh? You're still waiting out here for me are you? If you keep doing this a girl could get the wrong idea." the voice spoke, it was someone he knew wasn't it? Surely?

"Hey sleepy head? You awake in there?" she came around and stood in front of his eye and waved a hand drawing his attention back to the purple haired woman.

"Y- you're… here?" the words found their way out of him with a tone that was filled with sadness.

"Uhm? I am yes. Are you alright?" Her eyes looked at the boy before her up and down searching for the problem.

_He stood alone on a road devoid of people, covered in snow, his clothing covered in her blood. He screamed and no one came to break him from the hell he was in, forced to believe it real._

"I- I..." before he knew it he had wrapped his arm around her. "I'm so glad it wasn't real! That you're alive!" The tears rolled down his face as his struggle to tell the difference in the realities faded and they separated.

"I'm not really sure how to react to this if I'm honest." Yumi said with her arms awkwardly held out from the hug. "At the least I'm glad I'm not hurt either then." her voice unsure of how to deal with the situation presented.

"_I was so scared I'd lost you..._" his voice trembled at the thought. "_I can't lose anything more… not again..._"

She could hear the true amount of terror and fear presented in his words, everything he said was filled with an emotion she had never seen in him before. Even when he had come to the Dojo after losing his arm, he was relatively cheery then.

'_So what happened to cause this?_' she wondered as her thoughts lifted the apprehensive feelings she had about it and her arms reciprocated the embrace. '_Kaede said he had been having moments where he would _slip_ but she never said what that meant, was this one of those moments?_' all she wanted was to understand what had happened, yet nothing arose in her mind as to what the cause could be.

"Takezou?" her voice was soft as she asked the man that had become a boy through sheer amount of fear.

"_Yes_…?" his tone was still shaken, but she had gotten his attention at least.

"If you don't mind me asking, what- what happened?" Yumi wasn't exactly sure how to ask the question, if it would make him cry harder, if he would break down more or if possibly he would sober up and answer. How would someone normally deal with something like this?

"_I said _**I love you**_, and it killed you… all I wanted was to show you my heart and have you return the feelings… but instead you were robb-_" he stopped himself as it all resurfaced and he backed away from her breaking the embrace and throwing up the contents of his stomach into the snow.

'_What did he say?_' her head swam ignoring the contents of his stomach now being tossed out. '_He said-_'

_They stood alone in the street that was devoid of people, there was no one here, it was quiet. Her head swam at a breakneck pace trying to comprehend what she had heard, while he continued to vomit at the thoughts and images that plagued his disturbed and battered mind._

_His mind was now the chipped blade that he had been warned of, so many fractures that the reality he views has become hard to distinguish from dreams and nightmares. Now they invade his mind when he was alone for too long._

Yumi watched as Takezou fell backwards onto the ground, she felt like hole was opened in her heart watching it as she dazed by her thoughts and he scrambled to keep himself up with his left arm that wasn't present only to hit the ground back first, letting out a pained noise he went still and the woman rushed to his side.

'_Nothing is making sense anymore with him, why?_' her thoughts asked with no answer being gifted to her by an omnipotent source or her own memories.

She picked up the much larger boy and carried him through the snow towards where he lived, she had visited a several occasions beforehand, but this would certainly be the worst yet seeing how every had been for her so far.

It had already been dark when she had left the Dojo her grandfather owned and was planning to have her inherit, but now it was later into the early night. The sounds of the villagers celebrating had begun to calm down and weren't as loud in the distance, though it made the empty place they were traveling along to be more eerie to Yumi as she trudged along through all the snow that was piling up.

Yumi arrived on the road that Takezou's home was on after about an hour of walking across the village to it.

There was nothing more than worry in her mind about the state of her close friend as they approached the house, another thing she hoped was that his mother was awake and might be able to give answers about what had happened. Several months ago around the time she heard about what happened to the Rakurai family from Kaede herself, the older woman had told Yumi that her son experienced '_slips_' and that he would often forget them after the fact- that they were mostly fake memories altered by- something, she didn't expand on it exactly, but said to be weary of them, though at the time the dark skinned woman had also told her about the times when Takezou had blacked out and would end up in hospital which Kaede said might be connected to the 'slips'.

She had begun to think that maybe in one of these moments where his mind slipped that he had confessed to her and that it had taken hold of his mind and continued, likely made worse by his already unstable state. After all, his mother hadn't been the only one to visit her in relatively recent times, his Aunt Rei had come to Yumi and explained that he had thrown himself off the Hokage monument- also telling her that the rest of his family had been informed and were going to be watching him and that they'd like it if she could tell them if anything was off about him when he was with her.

It had shocked her greatly when she heard about his attempted suicide. There were no words that she could muster, though the next time she saw him she was very aware that he had watched her almost the entire time he had visited the Dojo.

Everything was so jumbled up around him that she didn't know what to think anymore and had no clue what her own thoughts about him even were anymore.

**[The Oath Was Movie Like In Nature]**

Kaede had put her daughter to sleep just half an hour earlier and was sitting in the living room of her house reading a book while wrapped up in a blanket with a heater on when there was a knock on the door, she hadn't been expecting visitors of course- especially not the night of a huge festival where she had already been out to it during the day with her Daughter of whom had been asking her to buy nearly everything she laid her eyes on. So it was a surprise for sure, the only person she could imagine it being was her son, but it would have made next to no sense if he had knocked like this, normally he came right in and announced himself- something she was grateful he did, she had enough of her late Husband coming into the house as quiet as a mouse with his skills from being a Shinobi and frightening the daylight out of her.

This was someone else, not necessarily family she would wager seeing as the other members of her Husband's family/his siblings all had their own children to take care of, so it had to be someone who was either desperate for something. Or in the unlikely case it could be one of her son's friends from being a Ninja… Hinata, she remembered the name of the shy girl who she could only see as an adorable new daughter- but no it couldn't be her for fact that she seemed far too nice to ever come over unless she was already with her son.

She was also sure it wasn't any of her friends, they all had children of their own and because of their jobs she didn't get to see them much. Point being that Kari and Asami were likely asleep and had no reason to visit her.

Narrowing down her options as she closed in on the front door of the house she heard another knock, she decided to waive any ideas as to who it was and just opened the door.

It was a familiar face either way, it was the girl with the beautifully coloured hair that she could never quite place the shade of purple to, the one she was sure since the first day he had come home from Archery Club was in love with. He had talked about her a fair amount without even knowing, he would always mention her when talking about being there.

She noticed another familiar mop of hair, that of which was mostly silver and had a fair amount of snow covering both.

Kaede didn't give the girl before her a chance to speak, instead rushing the purple haired girl inside ignoring taking off shoes to allow her to head straight in and off load her son onto a couch so they could warm up then talk. Before that though she disappeared into the kitchen and began whipping up food and something warm to drink for her guest and son who she assumed would wake up and be hungry, Yumi had been over enough times for Kaede to get what foods she liked out of her.

It wouldn't take long for her to cook up rice, make miso soup and fry some chicken in teriyaki. She had gotten good at cooking with having to do it for her husband and son, both of whom ate a lot due to all their training. She was glad her daughter hadn't taken any real interest in being a Shinobi. Though she did seem to like the bows Takezou had in his room.

Anyhow when the food was done, Yumi looked very much livelier than she did when they came in, and she had a chance to now realize her son looked like someone had pushed snow into his face and tried to wipe it with it. Setting the food down both women began eating letting the purple haired girl relax from being relatively tense.

"So… what happened exactly?" Kaede asked the younger girl who was sat across from her with Takezou wrapped up in blankets next to Yumi.

"Well- I… I had finished up at our Dojo and was leaving when I noticed he was standing outside in the street waiting, he was staring up at the sky and stars, he looked lost I guess?" the purple haired girl paused and sipped at her tea, placing the cup down she continued. "Something about him seemed off so I walked up to him and started talking, when I did at first he didn't seem to notice me after a few minutes though I said some more things to get his attention- and so when he noticed me the first thing he did was cry and tell me how grateful he was that I was alive and that whatever he had seen wasn't real- then he hugged me and simultaneously declared his love for me..." She still felt very conflicted and confused about it all.

The woman of Lightning heritage was silent for several minutes as she thought about what was said and how to deal with it all, her son had become such an enigma to her and even the people he was closest to. He no longer felt the same and often forgot things he should know or about people he had known for years, the phantom pains that plagued him every once in a while and now these moments where he seemed to have his head filled with an illusionary world where things turn to the worse.

Deciding to lighten the mood somewhat Kaede focused on what was the least of their worries. "Well I knew he would confess to you eventually, it was just a matter of when." she said with a slight smirk building as she watched the girl before her splutter about it.

"Uh-Oh? You did?!" Yumi squeaked out indignantly as she looked between herself and the older woman then Takezou's unconscious form several times.

"As for what happened though, there's been a few times before where he's been making dinner for us and he suddenly zones out like how you described and when he does he comes back and seems to frantically start looking for something- normally when he catches sight of myself or his sister he calms down." The older woman had a concerned expression as she thought about the times it had happened previously.

"Is- is there anything we can do to stop these instances from happening or-" the Kyudo instructor stopped herself as she began to hear an uncomfortable desperation in her own voice.

"We'll just have to look after him until- until it gets better." Standing up Kaede moved around the small coffee table between the two, the other woman preemptively stood to see what she was doing only to be surprised when Kaede hugged the girl tightly and spoke again.

"You may not be my daughter, but just like his teammates I consider you all my children-" the older woman squeezed the younger. "And it makes me over the moon to see how much you care..." she looked to her son for a moment. "Lets just hope he wakes soon so this nightmare of his will be over." the red haired woman released the girl and gave a bright smile.

After all, the only thing they could do was wait.

After sitting back the purple headed girl decided to clear the air about something. "My name is actually Yumiko… I know it's been a while since I met Takezou, but I never actually said my name to him because my grandfather just told him that I was Yumi instead of saying my actual name." She felt odd about finally using her name like she did, Yumi was just a nickname, it had really always been Yumiko.

Deciding to tell the truth as well she spoke "You know..." Kaede said looking to the short haired girl in front of her as emotions muddled her head. "I never did tell him the truth and the longer everything goes on the more I don't want to tell him about what really happened that night."

"You're talking about the night he lost his arm aren't you?"

The mother nodded the sad expression she wore forming a grim hollow smile.

"Mm… that night Takezou killed his father- Nobuyuki, he was the one that gave me this cut on my face..."

Yumiko watched the woman letting her continue on her own without really knowing what to do.

"Takezou had screamed and started radiating chakra when we found in on his floor before he exploded at Yuki and they fought- while they did I had gotten Akatsuki out of the house to Yuki's parents' before coming back to find them still fighting..." the memory haunted her greatly as images of the night ran through her mind.

"Take threw a sword at his father who dodged it and it passed by my face cutting along my face- then as Nobuyuki turned and saw me he didn't have the time to stop Take from trying to do some kind of fire jutsu… it failed and blew up in his face killing his father, destroying part of the house and the awkward chakra must have destroyed his arm..."

"I was left with a destroyed home and family because of this stupid-" she clenched her fists as her normally loving smile had been completely replaced with the stress lines of someone decades older than her and hardened narrowed eyes that held years of held in resentment towards whomever or whatever bestowed such a cursed Kekkei Genkai upon her family.

* * *

**AN: So, that's it. the end of A Vagabond In Death, I'm grateful for any and all support that people have shown and will show as the story gathers dust, though the story has a likelihood of coming back one day I'm fairly uncertain of how it would continue. Though speaking of which that leads into the second part of the chapter where it's basically a sneak peak at what I had been considering for the second part to this story.**

**So here is what I would consider extra content for the story that isn't entirely canon to it's narrative unless I come back and continue the story saying as much.**

**/-/**

**Chapter Title: It was a dream like state.**

* * *

I was surrounded, alone and had nothing but the loose fitting padded armour clothing and two swords, they were my Miao Dao and the Chokuto that I vaguely remembered buying. The large blade was in a half sheath on my back for easy usage and the normal length blade was on my hip.

From what I could tell I was in a pine forest on a night where the full moons light cast down upon a clearing I was in, the ground around me was rough and an odd mixture of grass, dirt and stone that was roughed up from having been trampled on by the feet of people with particularly heavy feet, probably armoured soldiers if I had to guess.

Lifting my hand into view I realized that I wasn't complete, my fist tightening and tension in my lone arm as said realization settled. As time went on and I calmed I gently ran the fingers of my right hand over the stump of my left arm- my lonesome mulling was interrupted when I caught the sound of clinking metal, I wasn't sure what to make of it. Could it be weapons? Armour? Or just a loose set of keys? Small metal pieces banging together with movement?

My question was answered as men began filling into the space of the clearing, all of them were wearing at least a chest piece and a few of them wearing bracers and greaves. The men were armed with varying weapons, from swords, axes to maces. I had no idea what was happening, the men, far too many for me to count made it so there was no immediate escape by surrounding all possible spots. Feeling my breath hitch at the sound of a feral roar from several of the men as they charged me I was forced to immediately dodge out of the way of four men converging on me at once.

Blades catching nothing but the air in the space that previously held me they pushed on more joining in on it, ducking around I began to see what I was being forced into. Drawing the Chokuto and wielding it in a reverse grip I fought back causing the man I attacked to quickly raise his sword in defence only to be to late as my muscle memory worked its magic and I slipped into his guard stabbing him up through the neck into the skull- pulling the blade out with my back to the falling corpse I pushed forward switching grips and jumping into another unprepared soldier stabbing him through the chest.

Moving like the flow of a stream I parried an attack from behind and slashed at my attacker cutting his forearms off, following this I kept up a pace of killing that was sickening my soul to its core as the loss grew larger from my continued combat. I was without chakra. I made the realization as I had attempted to split a man in two, leaving the short sword lodged in the man's body forcing me to leave it as I dodged more the swords and axes coming for my body. Finding a moment of reprieve in the scarce nature of their morale I drew the Miaodao giving me a greater reach with my attacks and allowing for wilder movements and attacks.

Crimson liquid sprayed the foliage and people around as the attackers found reason to continue on this escapade of which I was still unaware of the reason for.

They all started to look vaguely familiar and I couldn't place who exactly yet, though everything about this scenario felt like something I had been doing for years now.

It was when the bolt of a crossbow flew past missing me entirely and killing one of the soldiers that my thoughts returned to me. My stamina was lessening at a greater pace than before as I narrowly dodged being skewered and the minor injuries across this body started to take their toll.

'What am I doing here? In this wretched miserable place… who or why was I doing this? Was it for Hinata? Kaede? Akatsuki? No… I've no clue- really I should just focus on fighting and getting out of here...'

_Swish_

_Stab_

_Dodge_

_Slash_

The fighting continued for what felt like hours as the damage to my body racked up in a way that left me waning from side to side ready to collapse, unsure of why I was fighting or what for.

Finally it all came crashing down upon me when I collapsed into a tree sliding down it and holding my sword against my chest as my body shuddered from the pain, every inch ached and refusing to let me go beyond a shallow slumber ready to be woken at any time.

Hours passing my shivering sore form tense and full of confusion as I lay here waiting, for what, I didn't know.

When I awoke I was lying on the ground still clutching the black blade close to my chest, it offering a modicum of peace to what was left of my ever withering soul. The chips were too large, the cracks had left a mess and this blade was left in sore need of being reforged so that it might come out on the other side stronger.

Was this the product of something I did?

So much of the scattered thoughts left it harder for me to remember who I was, a name always came to mind, but the images of who that was never seemed to fit the name.

What was even true at this point?

Ever since the day I split I haven't been the same have I?

I remember meeting him, the way he looked so alike me, yet something about the way we stood was so different. He resorted to the darker options of dealing with it all while I was forced to watch like a passenger to my own life, they all talked and hung out with the fake, forcing me to cringe at the way he acted. Every word he spoke continued to slowly drive him away from me and who I was.

I had been so determined to understand what it was I wanted and he ruined it all, when he took over, that part of his act annoys me so damned much.

He's nothing but a mongrel and yet still I have no power over him, even though he's in a coma, I can't make any change to it all. He hasn't seen me since the time we split and all I wish for is the chance to get him back for this, it's been over a year since it happened. All I want is to take back the reins seeing as he can't handle what's floating around in here.

**[Mind Numbing]**

A few more days had passed and he was still out, Kaede had come by a few times to talk aloud to us, I'm not sure if she knew whether or not we could hear it. But I think she just did it to help her have an outlet with all the things she has been dealing with, I could understand that.

Yumiko… I knew that was her name, but he didn't and she thought that I had just never actually known what her name was. I had known since I had joined the Kyudo Dojo, the old man told me what it was and said that Yumi was her nickname and that he had unintentionally said it instead of her name.

She hadn't come over since she had to drag his sorry ass back home, hearing Kaede finally say to someone else that he had killed Dad was comforting in an odd way. Knowing that she had finally let go of that piece, I had been forced to watch that whole experience, it was awful to see obviously, but at the same time I think that I had just been so jaded to it all by that point that its weight had been lessened. Though I had spent the entire time trying to take over and stop what was happening, all I managed to do was blow our arm off.

Hell.

I was so damned tired, I wish I could just take a break from all this. But I'm not even allowed to sleep when I'm like this, I have to always be active watching and listening to everything.

Nothing but boring days of sitting alone waiting for sound, Akatsuki loves coming in the room and trying to get him to wake up which is always fun to watch, but that's about it for entertainment. I can't even look back on my memories here, I can only really look back on things that are always floating through his mind.

That forest fight was something that happened pretty often while I was waiting in here for the days to go by, though it often changed depending on what his mind was doing. He seemed to have these weird moments where his mind just stuffed up and he'd start seeing things and during those or after them I got sent into those fights. The forest was familiar, but I could never tell why though it was always followed by a fight on a huge battled field and then capped off with a duel on a snowy hill under a pine tree- which had a few variants to itself as well actually. There was one under a huge pine tree on a snowy morning where I was forced to fight a ton of guys and no matter how well I did in that one I could never come out of it unscathed.

I can't do anything about whatever they were either.

The normally bland space around me began to morph and shift into that of one of the many scenes I seemed to always find myself in while stuck in this head of ours. Something about this new scene was off though, it felt like something wasn't right-

Noir

My view was obscured for a short time and when it finally left allowing for me to take in what was now surrounding me, I found myself at the enormous machine in the land of snow where they turned the country's snow off somehow- I sure that had massive implications on the wildlife and whatnot there by the way, just saying.

The mountains were all snowy and rocky as ever though, completely unlike how we left it, so I guess this was some kind of memory then. And if it wasn't I had no idea what was in store for me going forward.

Casting my gaze around I noticed that the valley was eerily quiet, the only noise was the winds and distant sounds of creaking oaks, evergreens and pine trees as they sway in the wind. The lumbering structure of the enormous monoliths that made up for the conduits of the weather changing device were all intact at the moment, the one that Naruto punched or rasengan'ed the guy into wasn't damaged in any way.

It did seem like the ice on the lake was fairly thin, it must've been changing the longer I stood around because when I arrived it was impossible for me to see through it now it was getting quite clear.

I had been here for what felt like an hour now and nothing had happened yet, I hadn't moved either, my body felt like I was sitting in a warm room somewhere despite me being sat on the snowy ground.

If I was honest then I'd say that I could probably just say here til the end of time, but even then I'd be lying to you. It was cool here and at the time I had wished the country had stayed- well you know? Snowy, because I liked the snow and it had been a cool experience walking around in it before they had basically turned it off. Though from what I heard they didn't manage to get the machines running again so it was back to perpetual winter there.

**[Snowy Tundra's of a Distant Land]**

The sky offered me nothing by an abyss to lose myself in as I watched it for hours.

It was nice to gaze long into an abyss sometimes, even if they tended to gaze long back into you.

People always made that out to be a bad thing didn't they? Was it really that bad? I feel like everyone should do it a least a couple times in their lives, so that they may understand something about themselves they didn't know beforehand.

I began to realize something after a while, where I was sitting had changed. I was now in a forest, it was still snowy and cold.

How I hadn't noticed I couldn't tell you and if anything this place was unfamiliar to me, at least I had memories of the mission to the land of snow, whereas this just looked like a random forest that could be anywhere. Often these scenarios I found myself were reflections of our mental state or even just these weird ideas that came out of nowhere, though they did help to pass the time on occasion when I wasn't watching him fumble around and fall apart.

So that begged the question of whether or not I should go looking around and it seemed like I ought to, but I was still feeling like I should just sit around. I was dressed in a navy blue Kimono and had straw sandals on with tabi, so it wasn't really like I needed to get someplace warm even if I felt chilly at the moment. Though that brought something to the forefront didn't it? I could never use chakra in these things and I don't really know why, I mean it's in my head surely I would be able to?

After a few minutes of mulling it over I decided to start walking around through this forest, I didn't find anything immediately, and its not like I expected to. What I did end up coming across was a set of footprints in the snow that hadn't been filled in yet, so I was assuming they were fresh and that I should find the first character of this act. Or if I'm lucky I'll end up getting killed and being forced into an infinite loop until I figure it all out like that one I got a ways back.

Walking along trailing the footprints I continued to think, it was a wonder I hadn't thought myself to death after all this time really with how much time I've had to tear myself apart from the inside out like this. Suppose that opened the dialogue of wondering as to how much longer I can go on like this until that finally happens, it would suck for sure, but if anything it makes sense to a degree doesn't it?

I stopped as I looked up from the ground and came to meet eyes with someone, they- well I honestly would have said they were the woman version of me if I hadn't known any better, she had long silvery hair, dark skin, amber eyes and was wearing that black Kimono with the red Obi and tiger design on it that I ended up in way back when I went on the fishing trip with my Aunt, the Kimono that was apparently my mothers. Other than that though she was wearing straw sandals with white tabi and had a Katana and Wakizashi on her hip.

So yeah, she was in front of me now.

Being as mundane as I was I just said "Hello." giving a small wave as she glanced me up and down her eyes seemingly unimpressed with what she saw.

There was a short few minute long silence as we stared at one another waiting for something to happen before the woman eventually spoke, breaking the silence and the odd staring competition we were in.

"Well come on then, it's way too cold for anyone to just be standing around out here like this." with that she turned and began trudging through the snow, I followed after not really caring for what might happen.

We walked through the forest quietly, that is to say we didn't speak rather than out footsteps were silent seeing as walking through snow was fairly loud. Though the unnamed possible genderbent version of myself occasionally looked back on me to see if I was still there, I started to wonder where exactly we were going, would it be a lone house, a hamlet or even a village. Who knows? Well I mean she does obviously, but like anyone else here right now doesn't.

The longer we traveled the more my thoughts had time to continue wandering on their own off into a world of oddities and foreign concepts seeing about understanding something that was likely running through his head rather than anything of my own volition. Occasionally that caused problems for me, but at the moment it was something of a welcome distraction from the now creeping cold that had begun to take over my body.

Eventually I was brought from my head when I heard a voice.

"So who are you?" the woman asked.

"Ah..." I fumbled my words as I drew a blank on answering. "Oh! I'm Takezou- who are you?" I asked back after finding my bearings.

"Takezou, Huh? Well I'm Fuwa." there was the vaguest amount of surprise in her tone at repeating my name. "Well, it's nice to meet you I guess."

"The feeling is mutual." I offered as her eyes met mine again for a moment when Fuwa looked back on me slowing down slightly so we were next to one another.

"So how did that happen?" Fuwa asked, pointing at my missing arm with a raised brow.

"In a fight" I answered with a shrug. "Can't remember exactly what took it, but I'm pretty sure I got caught in an explosion of some kind." it was technically true, there was no lies in what I said.

"Right..." there was a lul of silence for a moment before she asked another thing of me. "Alright, how about why were you out here in the forest like this?"

"It's kind of hard to answer." came my response not really knowing how to answer.

"Try me."

"Well I just sort of woke up there if I'm honest." I answered with another shrug, and I mean that was true as well wasn't it?

The strange look I got out of the woman was about what I expected considering what I said to her. "So, anyhow-" she said, clearing her throat. "We're heading to my house, its another twenty or so minutes until we get there."

"How do you know?" I was curious as to how she came to that conclusion.

"I marked all the trees so that I could tell how much longer until I arrived home, see that-" Fuwa pointed out to a marking on a tree a few meters in front of us. "That one says that it's about another fifteen minutes."

"Nifty." I was impressed with the idea more than anything, though it's not really like I've ever needed something like that while living in Konoha and all.

"Sure is useful that's for sure."

As we walked into a large opening I saw the large old style japanese home with tiled roofs and all, there seemed to be a bamboo grove behind the house from where we walked up to it at. There was also a planter out the front across from a large open space that had a faded outline of a sparring/dueling ring like Ume had at her house. It was nice seeing something familiar in that way even if it wasn't exactly like hers.

Yet here I was feeling a sense of relief and nostalgia as we got closer to it all, Fuwa must've noticed my change in mood because a hand landed on my shoulder in boisterous way that felt like we had been friends for years rather than the hour we had been walking with one another through a forest in the middle of nowhere.

"Seems like you're already feeling safer here- there something I should know?" her tone was light and yet caring.

"It's nothing much, I just grew up learning how to use a sword in place that was fairly similar to this." I answered with a fondness reminiscence for my childhood.

It wasn't exactly related to my current scenario, but a flickering of my past made its way through my head courtesy of him and I realized that I swore like some sailor all the while he never did, and any time it seemed like he was it was just the few glimpses of him being weak enough for me to push my real thoughts through to the top.

Out of nowhere I heard Fuwa speak again. "If you don't heal what hurt you, you will bleed on people who didn't cut you"

"So this is one of those then is it?" I said turning to face the sky above.

It did look like that now that I thought about it.

There was something I wanted to do first though, pulling a knife out of my kimono I put it to the back of my neck and slashed, cutting the long hair that had long since overstayed its welcome.

I guess it really is about to be one of those huh?

* * *

**AN:**


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